A simple promise
by Naomi-Starcloud
Summary: They were friends long ago. Then she had to leave, but not before making a promise. Many years later, she fulfills that promise and they meet once again. But under what conditions? Rated just to be safe. (This IS NOT an AU(Complete)
1. She's been gone for so long

Key:

" " - talking

' ' - thinking

_italics_ - flashbacks

( ) - author's notes

Summary: They were friends long ago. Then she had to leave, but not before making a promise. Many years later, she fulfills that promise and they meet once again. But under what conditions?

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"_I...have to go..." Naomi said, looking down sadly. She had long black hair that was tied in a ponytail, yellow eyes, fangs, and claws. She also had black cat ears, and she was wearing a simple black kimono._

_Inuyasha, who was sitting against a tree and was fifteen, didn't reply. He just stared up at the stars._

_Naomi turned and started walking, tears threatening to fall. She held them in as best she could, trying to be strong. Then she felt a slight tug on her hair, which fell around her shoulders. She turned and saw that Inuyasha had taken the strip of black cloth that had tied her hair up._

"_You said this one was your favorite," he said. "So you'll have to come back for it."_

_She looked at him a few seconds before smiling and nodding. "Yeah," she said. "I'll come back. I promise."Without another word, she turned and started walking again. Then she broke into a run._

_Inuyasha watched her go, clutching the cloth tightly in his hand. "You better keep your promise..."_

-

Inuyasha(normal age) woke up with a start. He looked around and saw that the others were still asleep. He looked out Kaedae's hut's window and saw that it was the middle of the night. He looked again at the others. Shippou and Kagome were laying on the ground by the fire, Sango was sitting against the wall, Kilala was in her arms, Miroku was next to her, and they were all asleep.

Inuyasha stood up and walked outside. He jumped into his favorite tree and lay there, hands behind his head, looking at the crescent moon. It had been a crescent moon that night...

He sat up and shook his head. "She's gone!" he said. "She ain't comin' back! She lied! She forgot about her promise! She forgot about me!" He angrily brought out the cloth that he had taken all those years before. He glared at it, wondering why he had kept it all those years. A breeze blew.

'It would be so easy,' he thought, 'to let it go, to forget. So easy...'

But, somehow, he just couldn't do it. He couldn't just forget. She had been his only friend, the only one who truly knew what it felt like to be a "half breed".

He repocketed the cloth, angry at himself for not forgetting. He looked at the moon again, and slowly fell back to sleep.

-

Naomi walked through the trees. She was older now, a lot older, though she only loked to be seventeen. Her black kimono had been replaced by black pants and a black shirt, and she now had a sword by her side. The hilt was black, as was the seathe it was in. Her hair swung loosely behind her. She had her hands behind her head and her eyes closed. She heard a sound in the bushes and instantly became alert. She drew her sword, pointing it in the direction of the bushes, the steel glinting in the moon light. "Who goes there?"

Kagura emerged. "Calm down," she said, slightly annoyed. "I have been sent by the demon Naraku to hire you."

Naomi loosened her grip on her sword, but kept it pointed at Kagura. "Oh? Tell me the job and the payment. Then I shall decide whether to take the job or not."

"You've heard of the half demon, Inuyasha, correct?"

"Yes. I've heard the rumors."

"Naraku wants you to kill him. Inuyasha has many jewel shards, and you may have them when he's dead."

"Very well. I except this mission," Naomi replied, finally seathing her sword. "Tell Naraku that Inuyasha will be dead by morning."

"Hmph," Kagura said, using one of her feathers to fly off. 'For a half demon, she's pretty cocky.'

Naomi watched her go, then looked at the crescent moon. "Inuyasha," she muttered. "That name... it seems... familiar..."

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**Review please!**


	2. Did she really forget?

Aphtin: I really wish I could draw a good picture of her for you...Anyway, she has long black hair that falls to about her mid back, black cat ears, yellow eyes, baggy black pants, black shirt, and a black hilted sword in a black seathe. Now for the numbers. 17171717 is the divider between the story and the other stuff I write. 111111 is the divider to show a scene change. I hope that answers all your questions!

cherryblosomz: No, this isn't Inu/OC pairing. And yes, the others will be in it, just not for maybe another chapter or so.

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Kagura walked into the room where Naraku was a little later. "She says that Inuyasha'll be dead before morning," she said in an annoyed tone. She was annoyed that she had to go and carry Naraku's messages all the time. 

"Good," Naraku said. "You'd like to know how I'm so sure that my latest scheme will work, right?"

"Not really," Kagura replied.

"Since you want to know so bad, I'll tell you," Naraku said, either not hearing her remark or ignoring it. "You see, even though Inuyasha and Naomi were once friends, Naomi doesn't remember him. Her mind was erased by her mother, the demon parent."

"Uh-huh," Kagura said, bored.

"You'd like to know why her own mother erased her memory, wouldn't you?" Naraku asked.

"I don't really care," Kagura replied.

"Her mother thought it would be easier on her if she didn't remember Inuyasha," Naraku said, once again either not hearing Kagura or ignoring her. "She didn't think that they'd ever meet again. Now I'll bet you're wondering how I know all this, right? I mean, not even Onigumo was born when this happened."(I heard somewhere that Inuyasha was a couple hundred years old, and Naomi left when he was only fifteen)

Kagura was examining her nails. "You're gonna tell me anyway," Kagura replied, clearly very bored. "So just go ahead and get it over with."

"A demon told me in hopes that I wouldn't kill him," Naraku replied grinning evilly. "And-"

"And you killed him anyway, even after you promised you wouldn't," Kagura guessed. "Anyway, see ya." She turned and walked out of the room.

"Anyway, see ya," Naraku mimicked in a high pitch voice.

-

Naomi shortly came to the tree where Inuyasha was asleep. She grinned. 'This'll be easy,' she thought. She leapt onto the branch gracefully and silently. She drew her sword, positioning it by Inuyasha's neck. 'One clean sweep...' She looked at him for a few seconds, and suddenly her muscles wouldn't work. 'He's...so familiar...It's like I know him...'

Inuyasha's eyes fluttered open. "Huh?" he said groggily. Then he looked at Naomi, and his eyes went wide with shock. "Naomi!"

Naomi was taken aback. "How the hell do you know my name!" she shouted, pressing her sword tip against his neck, just enough to make a little blood trickle down.

"What are you doing!"

"Answer me!" she said fiercely. Her eyes held the same fierceness as her voice.

Inuyasha knocked aside the sword, sending it flying out of Naomi's grasp. "It's me! Inuyasha!" he shouted.

"I know who you are!" Naomi shouted back. "But I don't know how you know me!"

"Wha-" Inuyasha was shocked. "You...don't remember?"

"Remember what!"

"The promise!"

The words hit her hard. Her breath caught in her throat and her head started pounding. The words echoed in her mind.

The promise...The promise...

Naomi leapt out of the tree and landed on her feet right next to her sword. She dropped to her knees, clutching her head in pain. There was something she needed to remember...

Inuyasha leapt down too and squatted beside her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Naomi?" he said. "You okay?"

Naomi swatted his hand away and jumped to her feet, grabbing her sword. "Don't touch me!" she shouted shrilly. Then she turned and ran into the woods, calling over her shoulder. "Don't follow me! If you do, you'll be sorry!"

Neither Inuyasha nor Naomi noticed the single saimyoushi(Naraku's poisonous insect) flying overhead.

-

Naomi ran through the trees, head in her hand. The pain was incredibly severe, and she wondered what was causing it. She finally stopped when she got to a river. She sat down on the bank. Her head stopped hurting so much, and she let go. Then she hugged her knees and layed her chin on them, closing her eyes.

"You failed," said a voice behind her. Naomi jumped up and turned to see Kagura standing there.

"That Inuyasha," Naomi muttered. "He has some kind of spell or something over me! But don't you worry, I'll kill him next time."

"You better," Kagura said. "Naraku doesn't tolerate failure." She left on her feather, leaving Naomi watching her go for the second time that night.

When Kagura was out of site, Naomi clenched her fist. 'Inuyasha...I'll prove to myself that you are nothing to me by killing you tomorrow night. Nothing will stop me this time.'

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**Review please!**


	3. I'll kill you

Sorry it took longer than usual. I was having serious writer's block on the fight scene. I knew how I wanted it to end, I just didn't know how to get it to end like that. Also, I had a ton of homework and stuff. Anyway, I hope you like it, and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!

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The following day, Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippou, Miroku, Sango, and Kilala walked along a path in the woods. They had left Kaedae's village in the morning, and it was the afternoon now. Inuyasha was leading, Kagome was right behind him, Shippou was on her shoulder, Miroku was behind her, Sango was beside him, and Kilala was in her arms. 

Inuyasha had been acting strange since they woke up. He had been quiet and hardly talked at all, completely different from the loud-mouthed jerk he usually was. Finally, Kagome asked him about it.

"Inuyasha, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said quietly, keeping his eyes on the path ahead.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "You've been acting weird today."

"I'm positive," he said in the same quiet tone.

Kagome looked at him uncertainly, then decided to change the subject. "I thought I heard some shouting last night," she said. "It was probably just a dream, though."

"That's odd," Miroku said. "I had the same dream."

"So did I," Sango said.

"Me too!" Shippou put in.

Kilala mewed.

"You had the same dream, that's all. Nothing happened last night," Inuyasha replied, still not changing from his quiet tone.

The others glanced at each other, not believing him at all.

Kagome slowed enough so that she was walking beside Sango so that they could all talk. "What do you think's going on?" she asked quietly.

"I'm not sure," Sango whispered. "I heard the shouting, but I couldn't make out any of the words."

"This is certainly a mystery," Miroku said, thinking. "Inuyasha has never acted like this. Usually, when something bothers him, if we say something wrong, he'll shout at us."

"But now he's just being really quiet," Kagome completed. "What in the world could be wrong with him?"

"Whatever it was, it probably had something to do with the shouts," Shippou said.

"Most likely," Miroku said.

"Who do you think was out there?" Sango asked.

"It couldn't have been Naraku or anyone like that," Kagome said. "Otherwise he would've woken us up, or at least told us by now."

"True," Miroku said. "Maybe Kikyou?"

Kagome looked downcast, but Sango stepped in just in time. "I don't think so," she said. "Inuyasha isn't usually this quiet after he sees Kikyou." She smiled at Kagome, who smiled back gratefully.

"What're you whispering about back there?" Inuyasha asked, glancing at them. His usual threatening tone was absent.

They all froze up. "N-Nothing!" Kagome said nervously. "We were just...uh...talking about how nice the weather is today!"

Inuyasha shrugged, then looked back at the path ahead.

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at the others again. "We should probably finish this conversation later," she whispered very low. The other's nodded, then Kagome went back to her place right behind Inuyasha.

They walked for a little while longer, no one saying a word. Then, just as it was starting to get dark, Inuyasha stopped and stared off into the trees. The others stopped, too.

"What is it?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha didn't reply. He just stared into the trees. Suddenly, a dagger whizzed towards him. He dodged it just in time, and it hit a tree behind him. "Naomi, come out!" Inuyasha shouted.

Naomi did a backflip from the tree branch she had been on and landed gracefully on her feet. She looked at him, taking another dagger from her kimono's pocket. "I'll kill you, Inuyasha."

Miroku put a hand on his rosary that sealed his wind tunnel. "Let me take care of this," he said.

"If you do that, I'll rip your arm off!" Inuyasha shouted at him.

Miroku looked at him in surprise, then uncertainty, then confusion, all in a split second. He took his hand off the rosary, though.

Naomi threw another dagger at Inuyasha, but again he dodged. She drew her sword and charged at him. He dodged just in time.

"Stop running and fight me!" Naomi shouted, charging at him again.

He didn't say anything. He just dodged again.

"Have it your way then!" Naomi shouted, running at him with her sword once more. Once again he dodged.

This kept on for about five minutes.

"Stop dodging and actually fight!" Naomi yelled. "Or are you just too much of a coward!" With that, she charged at him once more, and once more dodged. Then her sword glowed with a black light. She ran at Inuyasha, swinging it vertically. "Die!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called. She and the others had no idea why he wasn't fighting back. She fitted an arrow into her bow, took aim, and...

"Don't, Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted fiercly. Kagome stopped herself just in time and looked at Inuyasha with a mixture of disbelief and surprise. Then Inuyasha turned his attention back to Naomi just in time to draw his sword in a block. The two swords clanged together as they locked. Neither Inuyasha nor Naomi slid back any.

"I will not fight you!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Then you'll die!" Naomi shouted back. With a surge of power, she pushed Inuyasha back. He skidded before coming to a stop about five feet away. She was breathing heavily with the effort.

"Naomi!" Inuyasha called. "Can't you remember anything! Don't you remember who I am!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Naomi shouted. The pain in her head returned, but she ignored it as best she could. She ran at Inuyasha, swinging her sword vertically, but he dodged. 'Dammit! The pain is slowing me down...'

Inuyasha wasted no time. While Naomi was standing there, concentrating on numbing the pain, he ran in. "Sorry," he muttered as he punched her in the stomach. Her eyes went wide with surprise, then she passed out.

-

"Well, well, well," Kagura said as she and Naraku watched the fight on Kanna's mirror. "What do you know? It seems I was right. I won, pay up." She held out her hand.

Naraku, grumbling, gave her a small coin pouch. She quickly opened it and counted the coins, then held out her other hand. Grumbling even more, Naraku gave her eight more coins.

"You won the bet this time," Naraku said. "But next time you won't be so lucky. Naomi will win, and I shall recieve my payment."

"Yeah, whatever," Kagura said nonchalantly. She stood up and walked towards the door, jingling her coin pouch. "If you need me, I'll be out buying stuff with my money." If looks could kill, Kagura would've died a thousand painful deaths from the glare she recieved from Naraku.

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Hope you liked it! And I've decided that I'm gonna try and make it funny whenever I have a Kagura/Naraku scene. Reviews are greatly appreciated! 


	4. Yes, she really forgot

Sorry it took a little longer than usual to update! I'm at my mom's house right now and she has two computers. One doesn't have wordpad or anything so wouldn't take its document. My stepdad is always on the other so I had to wait for him to get off before I could upload this. Anyway, it's here now, and I hope you all like it!

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Naomi woke up a little while later. Her head still hurt, but it was just a dull ache. She sat up and looked around at where she was, which was a completely different place than where she had been when she had been knocked out. She was now in a small hut. Bundles of hay were spread around, and Kagome, Shippou, Miroku, Sango, and Kilala slept either on top of or leaning against these bundles. Inuyasha wasn't there. There were no windows, but Naomi could tell that it was dark outside by the lack of light leaking in through the cracks.

Naomi stood up and quickly and silently walked to the door, which was really just wooden blinds. She pushed them aside and ran out. She then toook off running silently towards the trees.

"Naomi!"

Naomi stopped and whirled around at the sound of her name. Inuyasha stood there, arms crossed, looking at her with piercing yellow eyes. She placed a hand on her sword hilt, or, rather, where it would be. She suddenly realized that it was missing.

"Looking for this?" Inuyasha asked, holding up her sword, complete with seath.

"Give it to me!" Naomi snarled, trying to seem as menacing as she could.

"First you have to listen to me and answer my questions," Inuyasha replied.

Naomi clenched her fists. "Fine," she muttered through clenched teeth after a few minutes. She hated being told what to do unless it was a job offer, but she hated more being without her sword.

"Is there a time in your life that you can't remember?"

'I won't tell him,' she thought. "Yes," she said. "My early years." 'Damn my cursed tounge!'

Inuyasha walked over to her and took out the black cloth that had once been hers and gave it to her.

She stared at it blankly. "What's this?" she asked. "Nevermind, I don't care. Why'd you give it to me?"

Inuyasha looked at her sadly. "I guess they were both right and wrong."

Naomi switched her blank stare to him. "Who? And what were they right and wrong about?"

"The others said that you probably lost your memory," he explained. "That's what they were right about. They said that something from the past might help you remember, but that's where they were wrong."

"From the...past?" She looked at it again. True, it did seem vaguely familiar...Her head started hurting again. It felt like it was splitting in two, and she could hardly stand it. She refrained from showing that she was in pain since she didn't want Inuyasha to think she was weak. "My sword?" she asked, holding her hand out impatiently. She wanted to hurry up and get out of there.

"Here," he gave it to her, then started walking towards the hut. "Don't come after me anymore. If you do, I won't hesitate to kill you." With that, he disappeared into the hut.

Naomi quickly retreated after putting her sword back in its place. She held her head in her hand as she ran. 'Dammit! What's causing this pain?!' She stopped a few minutes later in a clearing, dropping to her knees. The pain began to numb a little, but it still felt like her head was on fire. She finally brought her hand away from her head, aware of a prescence in the area. She gritted her teeth, stood up, and turned to look at the newcomer.

"Hello, Naomi," a baboon cloaked figure said as he imerged from the bushes.

"Who are you?" she asked crossly.

"I am Naraku," he replied. "The one who hired you to kill Inuyasha."

"Why isn't that girl here? You usually send her."

"She went somewhere," he said.

"Where?" Naomi asked, curious. She completely forgot about the pain.

"Shopping," Naraku said sullenly. "But that's not important right now. You have failed to kill Inuyasha for the second time."

"I know," Naomi said bitterly. She noticed the pain again, but she gritted her teeth once more and didn't show it otherwise.

"You'd better kill him next time," Naraku said. "Try again tomorrow, during the day, when he's least expecting it."

"I don't tell you how to do your job, you don't tell me how to do mine," Naomi said through gritted teeth. Half of it was the pain, half of it was her restraining herself from killing Naraku. "I'll do it when I feel like it, where I feel like it, and how I feel like it."

"Well, whenever, wherever, and however you do it, just kill him," Naraku said with an air of finality. "A lot more's riding on this than just your life."

"Like what?"

"Like my money!" With no more to say, Naraku disappeared with a rush of miasma.

Naomi was beginning to depise the way Naraku and his minions always left her staring after them...Oh well, she had more important matters on her mind. One was the pain. The other...

She glanced down and realized that she was still holding the cloth that Inuyasha had given her. Without even thinking, she used it to tie up her hair. She felt more....natural like that. Then the pain seared again, and she collapsed, unable to take it anymore.

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Okay, that's it for chapter 4! Chapter 5 will be longer than usual and it will show you part of Naomi's childhood with Inuyasha as well as advance the plotline a bit. It should be up around Tuesday or Wednesday, so keep an eye out for it!


	5. Naomi's past

cherryblosomz: That was a really good idea, but I already had a plan for how I was gonna do it by the time I read your email, sorry! If I hadn't, then I definitely would've used your idea. Maybe I can do that a little in later chapters.....

Hurry for hurricanes! As of Tuesday, September 7, 2004, all schools in Troup County, Georgia(where I live), are closed due to the pending hurricane threat. In other words, I get to stay home and work on my story all day! YAY!! Anyway, here's chapter 5 where we get to learn about Naomi's past.

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Naomi looked around. Everything was dark, and she couldn't see a thing. For some odd reason, she wasn't scared. Actually, she was rather calm about it. She heard the running of feet behind her. She turned around slowly, but there was no one close enough to be seen. Then a red ball came into view. It rolled to a stop at her feet. She picked it up gingerly, fingering it lightly.

"Hi!" Naomi heard a girl say. She looked down and saw a fifteen-year old version of herself, hair up in a ponytail and wearing a black kimono(Let's call her Younger-Naomi).

"Hello there," Naomi said. She wasn't surprised, though she probably should've been. She handed her the ball.

"Thanks," Younger-Naomi said.

"Do you know where we are?" Naomi asked, glancing around.

"In a dream," Younger-Naomi replied. "There are some things I have to show you." With that, she took off running, disappearing in the darkness.

"Hey!" Naomi called after her. She took a few steps before being blinded by a bright white light.

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She blinked a few times, then her eyes started to adjust. She looked around and noticed that she was in a village. Brown dirt was underfoot, and huts were everywhere. She heard someone crying, then saw a five-year old version of herself(This one will be Mini-Naomi) wearing a black kimono and with her hair up in a ponytail. Naomi walked over to her. "What's wrong?"

Mini-Naomi didn't seem to hear her. She just kept crying, head buried in her hands. The red ball was a few feet away.

Naomi put a hand on her shoulder, but was stunned to see that it went right through. "What the hell?!"

"What's wrong?" a boy's voice asked. The older Naomi looked up, but Mini-Naomi didn't. Standing there was a five-year old version of Inuyasha, holding the red ball that he had picked up. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" Mini-Naomi said, wiping her eyes furiously without looking at him.

"Oh, sorry," Inuyasha mumbled.

Mini-Naomi finally looked up at him with a tear-stained face. She gasped when she saw him. "You're...you're a half demon too!"

"Yeah," Inuyasha said.

"Sorry I was rude," Mini-Naomi said. "I thought you were another human that was gonna make fun of me like the others who were just here. I didn't smell the demon blood in you."

"It's okay," Inuyasha replied, shrugging it off. "Hey, you wanna go play?"

Mini-Naomi's eyes brightened. "Yeah!" she exclaimed exitedly. "Oh, my name's Naomi."

"I'm Inuyasha!" They ran off, leaving Naomi to stare after them.

'Inuyasha...I came to this village when I was five....and I met him...'

Suddenly, bright light blinded her again.

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When the light faded, she was in the same dark place as before. Naomi heard someone running towards her, then turned just in time to catch the red ball that had been thrown to her. Younger-Naomi ran up, smiling. "That's good. You're beginning to remember." She grabbed the ball and ran away again, once more disappearing into the darkness. Naomi took a step forward, then light blinded her again.

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This time, when it died down, she was in a meadow. There was grass for a long way in front of her, and she could just barely make out a village in the distance. Then she heard voices.

"I'm gonna beat you!" said a girl's voice.

"Keh! You couldn't beat a snail!" said a boy's voice.

Naomi watched as two figures approached. One was herself, eleven this time(Little-Naomi is what she'll be called) and still wearing her hair up with a black kimono, and the other was Inuyasha, also eleven. They were both running, racing each other. They rushed past her, obviously not seeing her, and continued running. Naomi whirled around, seeing a forest behind her.

"I win!" Little-Naomi announced as she touched the tree on the very edge of the forest.

"You cheated!" Inuyasha accused.

"Prove it," Little-Naomi countered, smirking.

Inuyasha didn't have anything to say about that, so he just changed the subject. "Why'd we come here, anyway?"

"Follow me and I'll show you," Little-Naomi replied mysteriously. She ran off into the trees, Inuyasha following on her heels. Naomi hesitated a few seconds before following the two of them.

All three ran for about five minutes before Little-Naomi stopped in a clearing. Inuyasha skidded to a stop just before he ran into her, and Naomi skidded to a stop after she had run through both of them. It was a weird feeling, running through people...

"So, why're we here?" Inuyasha asked, getting a little annoyed.

"Don't you know?" Little-Naomi asked, grinning at him over her shoulder. "Lots of real demons live in this forest, and two are coming right this way! This'll be excellent training!"

Inuyasha grinned too. "Great!" he exclaimed.

Little-Naomi, Inuyasha, and Naomi all waited. They only had to wait for another second or two before two centipede demons came charging out of the trees. They were each about as thick as two people and about as long as twenty.

"I'll take one," Little-Naomi started. "And-"

"I'll take the other!" Inuyasha finished. They charged at the demons, Little-Naomi taking the one on the right, Inuyasha taking the one on the left.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" Inuyasha shouted as yellowish light surrounded his claws.

"Black Fire Claws!" Little-Naomi shouted as black light surrounded hers.

The two demons were sliced in half with ease. Little-Naomi and Inuyasha smirked triumphantly at each other. "We did it!" both shouted at the same time.

"We actually took down real demons!" Little-Naomi exclaimed, unable to hold in her excitement. "My mom will be so proud!"

"And Sesshoumaru will be so shocked!" Inuyasha said, grinning.

Naomi watched, smliing. 'The first demon I ever fought...After that, we came here practically every day and fought demons to train...'

Bright light blinded her once again.

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It faded into the darkness. Naomi heard a ball bouncing in the distance and looked around. Younger-Naomi came into view, bouncing the red ball sadly with one hand as she walked. "I'm glad you remember most of it now," she said. "But there's one last thing I need to show you. Then you'll have remembered everything."

"If it's about the day I had to leave, then I don't need to see it," Naomi said. "I remember that."

Younger-Naomi shook her head. "That's not it," she said. "It's something else." She caught the ball that she had been bouncing and walked off again, disappearing once more into the darkness.

Naomi, wondering what else there could be, followed her. Light blinded her as it had the other times.

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It faded to reveal a meadow. It was a different meadow than last time, though. There were no trees around this one and there was a cliff on Naomi's right. She looked around and saw Younger-Naomi(She's fifteen but it's not the one who's been showing her all the memories) sitting on the cliff's edge, hugging herself and looking over the edge sadly. Her hair was down, and this was apparently after she had left Inuyasha. She was still wearing the same black kimono.

Naomi walked over to her and sat beside her. She already knew that it would be pointless to try and talk, but she did anyway.

"You okay?" Naomi asked. Just as she had thought, Younger-Naomi gave no sign of having heard her.

Just then, both Naomi's turned at a noise. "Mom!" both exclaimed at the same time. Naomi's mother had cat-like yellow eyes, black hair that fell to her feet, cat ears, and a cat tail. She was wearing the black shirt and baggy black pants that later became Naomi's. She walked with a beautiful yet deadly grace.

"Naomi," she said softly, her voice like the purring of a cat. She sat beside Younger-Naomi. Luckily for Naomi, it was on the other side as her. She didn't want to find out what it felt like when someone sat through you...

"Why did we have to leave? Why couldn't we have stayed?" Younger-Naomi asked.

"I'm sorry," Naomi's mom said. "It was not my choice. We risked a lot in staying for those ten years. If we had not gone when we did, my enemies would have found us and killed us."

Younger-Naomi looked down, contemplating this. "I guess that makes sense..." she said. She drew up her legs and hugged them, laying her head on her knees. "I just can't help wishing that we could've stayed."

"I know. You and Inuyasha were practically inseperable. You'll have to forget about him, though."

"I've tried," Younger-Naomi said. "But I just can't. He's the only one I've ever met who actually understands what it means to be a 'half breed'."

"I know, and I regret very much what I have to do," Naomi's mother said gently. "I just hope that you never meet him again. If you do and you start to remember, it will be painful. Not only mentally, but physically as well."

Younger-Naomi nodded in understanding. She knew what her mother was about to do. She hadn't seen her use the power, but her father had told her about it.

Naomi's mom placed her hand on her daughter's forehead and closed her eyes in concentration. Black light engulfed both of them.

Naomi watched. 'This is...why I didn't remember...' she thought. 'Mother cast this spell on me and erased my memories of him. A few years after, her enemies found us anyway and killed her. They also killed my father. But they never found me. I'll bet that one of them told Naraku about all how I was Inuyasha's friend but I didn't remember...'

The blinding white light came again.

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Once more it faded into the darkness. Younger-Naomi(the one who has been talking to her and stuff) was standing in front of her, holding the red ball. "Now that you have remembered everything," she said, smiling. "You'll-We'll- never feel the pain again. We can be friends with Inuyasha once more, and everything will be the same as before."

"Not quite," Naomi said, smiling back. "Inuyasha has new friends as well. We'll be with him, yes, but we'll also be with them. But will they even accept us after we tried to kill Inuyasha?"

"Inuyasha will make them," Younger-Naomi said confidently. "I'm sure of it. Anyway, you should probably wake up now. I think it's day in the real world."

"Okay, but first I have to do something."

"What?" Naomi grabbed the ball out of Younger-Naomi's hands and whacked her with it. "What was that for?!"

"I couldn't help myself," Naomi replied, grinning. Then she woke up.

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My fingers have gone numb from typing so much....j/k! That was fun to write. I'll probably get the next chapter up tomorrow since I have so much free time to write today. If not tomorrow then maybe the next day. Anyway, please review!


	6. I'm back!

cherryblosomz: Yes, I love ending with humor! Humor makes the world go 'round!

Starfire77: Thanks! Glad you like it!

Kawabashi: Hullo! You didn't review for chapter 5....Does that mean you're not my friend anymore? j/k! Oh, and hurry up and get your story up!

Okay, chapter 6 is here! Naomi meets the Inuyasha group, and- Well, you'll just have to read it to find out!

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Naomi awoke in the same clearing that she had collapsed in. Younger-Naomi had been right about the two things; It was day and there was no pain in her head. She sat up and stretched, feeling refreshed and thankful that no demons had come and devoured her while she slept. She stood up, getting her bearings. 'Right then. The hut was...that way!' She began walking in the direction she remember the hut was in. Then she broke into a run, unable to keep her enthusiasm inside.

She got to the hut about a minute later, running at top speed. She pushed aside the wooden blinds and stepped in. She saw....nothing. There was the bundles of hay, true, but the others had gone. She sniffed the air, then determined that they had left about an hour before at the most. She walked back out and followed their scent, hoping to find them soon.

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Inuyasha and the others walked on the path through the woods. Inuyasha's ears were drooping a little, just as they had been ever since learning about how Naomi's memories of him were gone.

"Poor Inuyasha," Kagome whispered as she, Sango, and Miroku walked side-by-side to talk. Shippou was on Kagome's shoulder and Kilala was in Sango's arms as always.

"Yeah," Shippou said. "It's sad about Naomi."

"Do you think there's anything we can do to cheer him up?" Sango asked.

"Like what?" Miroku asked.

"Well...Kagome, what's that delicious bread stuff that you brought that one time?" Sango said.

"You mean cake?" Kagome asked. Sango nodded. "There's no more. It's all gone."

"What about the brown stuff that melts in your mouth?" Shippou wondered.

"Chocolate? No..."

"What about-" Miroku started, but he never got to finish. At that moment, a black blur rushed out of the trees and stopped right in front of Inuyasha, who stopped suddenly, causing the others to run into him.

"Hi!" Naomi, the 'black blur', said happily.

Inuyasha drew his sword. "If you came here to fight, then that's fine with me. I already warned you that-"

Naomi put up a hand to silence him. "I didn't come here to fight," she said. "I came here to tell you some great news. I got my memories back! I remember everything about you and about how we were friends! And I was wondering.... Could I travel with you now that I remember?"

Inuyasha stared at her, too shocked to answer. The others weren't, though. They got from behind Inuyasha and started talking all at once.

"Hi!" Shippou said happily. "I'm Shippou!"

"Any friend of Inuyasha's is a friend of ours," Kagome said warmly. "By the way, I'm Kagome."

"I am Miroku," Miroku said. "Would you do me the honor of bearing my child?"

"This is Kilala," Sango said, glancing at Kilala, who mewed. "And I'm Sango. You can just ignore Miroku."

They all turned expectantly to Inuyasha, who was just getting over the shock. "Well?" Kagome asked. "Can she come?"

Inuyasha just crossed his arms. "Keh," he said. "Whatever. Just don't expect me to rescue you if anything happens!" He turned away as a small smile crept across his face.

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Naomi said, grinning.

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"She got her memories back?!" Kagura and Naraku shouted at the same time as they watched it all in Kanna's mirror. Kagura was wearing a large fluffy boa thing that looked exactly like Sesshoumaru's.

"I win," Kanna said in her usual monotone voice as her mirror went blank.

Naraku crossed his arms and glared at Kagura. "She took all my money," he said.

Kagura ran her fingers through the boa. "And I spent all my money getting this made," she said.

"Then you must give me your most treasured posession," Kanna said.

Kagura immediately hugged her boa close. "Never!" she hissed. "It's mine! I bought it fair and square and no one's taking it away!"

"It's just a piece of junk," Naraku mumbled.

Kagura glared at him. "Say...that...again..." she growled through clenched teeth.

"It's. Just. A. Piece. Of. Junk." Naraku said sumgly, saying it loud and slow.

Kagura held up her fan. "Dance of Bl-"

Naraku held up her heart, a far greater weapon.

Kagura growled, then lowered her fan. Ignoring Naraku, she hugged her boa very tight before slowly laying it beside Kanna. She sniffled, then stood up and walked out the door.

Naraku put her heart away, then stood up, walked to the doorway, and checked to make sure that Kagura was gone. Once he was absolutely positive that she wasn't there, he walked over to his sleeping mat and lifted it up. Under it was a trapdoor. He looked around, making sure that no one was watching beides the impassive Kanna, then he lifted the latch and opened the trapdoor. Laying there was a large fluffy boa thing...

Naraku hastily drew it out. Then he sniffled, hugging it tightly it for a few minutes before laying in gently beside Kanna. "If Kagura asks about it, just tell her that you found it laying around," he said, ending with one last sniffle.(Hypocrite!)

Kanna simply nodded.

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Naomi looked around nervously. It was the night of the day that she had met up with Inuyasha again. Now she was leaning against the wall of a hut, looking anxiously out the window. There was no moon in the sky. She wasn't worried about that, though. She was worried about the effect that had on her. Her cat ears had been replaced by human ears, her eyes had turned from yellow to brown, and her claws and fangs were gone.

"Boo!" yelled someone behind her. Something latched onto her shoulder.

Naomi jumped fifty feet into the air, then instinctively grabbed her sword's hilt. She saw who it was and let go, growling a little. "Shippou...." she said warningly.

"You're even jumpier than Inuyasha!" Shippou commented. Naomi growled again, and Shippou jumped off her shoulder and bounded over to Kagome, who was sleeping in her sleeping bag. She was near the wall on Naomi's right.

Naomi sighed, then looked over at the others. Miroku and Sango were sitting on the opposite wall with Sango's boomerang seperating the two. Kilala was curled up beside Sango. All three were asleep. Then Naomi glanced at Inuyasha, who was sitting beside the door and as alert as ever. He was on the wall to Naomi's left.

"Why don't you go to sleep?" Naomi asked.

"You know I never sleep when I'm like this," Inuyasha replied. "I have to stay alert so that no one sneaks up on me in this weak form."

"Well, we can take turns keeping watch," Naomi suggested. "I'll take first watch while you sleep. I'll wake you up in about an hour or two."

"I'm staying awake no matter what," Inuyasha said stubbornly.

"Alright, do what you want," Naomi said. She crossed her arms very Inuyasha-like and waited for the sun to come up.

Inuyasha, though he said he wouldn't, soon drifted off into sleep. Naomi glanced at him, smiling, then looked out the window again. Finally, she stood up and walked over to it, resting her elbows on the window sill and looking at the moonless night. 'I'm glad to be back with Inuyasha....'

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There you have it folks! I might not be able to update for a while cuz of school and all the homework we have to do and stuff, but I'll try my best to get the next chapter up by Sunday, maybe even sooner. I guess we'll just have to wait and see....Anyway, review please!


	7. Naomi meets someone new

Starfire77: Yep, that's true! Thanks a bunch for your compliments!

As you've probably already noticed, I'm replying to everyone's reviews now whether they ask a question or not. If you don't want me to reply, however, you can just say so in your review.

Chapter 7 is up and it's a lot earlier than I expected. My sister, in one of her extremely rare and kind moods, let me get on the computer this afternoon and write this up. It's kinda short and it's more of a filler than anything else.

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"Uh-oh," Kagome muttered under her breath. 'Please be some other demon with two jewel shards....'

They had been walking on a path in the woods(for some reason, I always have them either on paths in the woods or random huts...) when Kagome had suddenly stopped and looked off into the trees. Inuyasha, who was leading, stopped and sniffed the air. Naomi, who had been walking beside Kagome, stopped and sniffed the air as well. Sango and Miroku, walking behind Naomi and Kagome, stopped and looked off into the trees. Sango was holding Kilala, of course.

It had been a week since Naomi had joined up with them, and Shippou had taken pleasure in informing her about all the people they had met and all the things that had happened. He had forgotten about a few people and facts, however, and one of the people was....

"Kouga," Inuyasha growled, smelling the wolf demon's scent.

"Kouga," Kagome repeated, sighing.

"Kouga?" Naomi asked.

"He's the young leader of the Wolf Demon Tribe," Shippou, who was on Kagome's shoulder, explained to her. "He likes Kagome, and Inuyasha gets really jealous."

"It's not jealousy!" Inuyasha growled at the little fox demon. "It's....something else!"

Just then a whirlwind appeared and out came Kouga. He bounced off Inuyasha's head before landing on the ground in front of Kagome, clutching her hands in his. "Hello beautiful!" he said cheerfully. "Ready to dump this mut and come with me?"

"Shut up you stupid wolf!" Inuyasha shouted, pulling him away from Kagome.

"I was talking to my woman!" Kouga shouted back.

"She ain't your woman!"

"Yes she is!"

"No she ain't!"

"Yes she is!"

Kagome sighed. 'Not again....'

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Their argument continued for about five minutes. The only thing that had changed the entire time was the loudness of the yelling and the positions of the rest of the group. Kagome was sitting against a tree, Shippou was sitting in Kagome's lap, Miroku was sitting against a fallen log, Sango was sitting on the same log, Kilala was curled up beside Sango, and Naomi was sitting on a nearby rock.

"How do they keep it up?" Naomi wondered aloud.

"I really have no idea," Miroku replied as his hand inched its way towards Sango.....

WHACK

Miroku sighed, rubbing a newly formed lump on his head, while Sango scooted farther away from him, clutching her boomerang in her hands. Naomi glanced at them, smiling, then watched Inuyasha and Kouga again.

"NO SHE ISN'T!!!"

"YES SHE IS!!!"

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Ten minutes later.....

"No...she...ain't..." Inuyasha said, panting a little.

"Yes...she...is..." Kouga said, also panting.

"Losing...your breath....eh...wimpy wolf?"

"No...How about...you....dumb dog?"

"Not a...chance..."

"Okay, I think that's enough," Kagome said, standing up. Shippo migrated to her shoulder as she did so. "Kouga, I'm going to stay here no matter what you say, so you can just go ahead and go back...for you..." Kouga said before running off, slower than usual.

"Stupid...wolf..." Inuyasha muttered.

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After a short rest, the Inuyasha group was on the road again in their reassumed positions. "Anything else you forgot to tell me about?" Naomi asked, glancing at the little fox demon who was riding on Kagome's shoulder.

Shippou thought about it for a few seconds. "No, I think that's all."

"Good," Naomi said, looking at the path ahead once more.

Shippou was wrong, of course. He didn't mean to be wrong. He just took it for granted that Naomi knew already, which she didn't. He left out one last, very important fact.....

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Hahaha!! I'm very evil, huh? Don't worry, next chapter will be longer and it will have a certain someone in there. Anyway, it should be up around Saturday/Sunday/Monday, maybe earlier or later, it all depends on school and my sis's moods. Review plz!


	8. Someone old, someone new, someone green,

Starfire77: Nope, but good guess! And thanx!

cherryblosomz: Nope, yep, thanx, yep, and yep. In that order. D

It's finally here! I was going to make it longer and have Naomi meet someone she's never met before as well, but I didn't really get around to it, sorry! Stupid school....Oh well. Anyway, it's here! Btw, the full title of this chapter is: Someone old, someone new, someone green, and someone...uh...brown?

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"Lord Sesshoumaru, where are we going?" Rin asked, riding on Ah-Un(the two headed dragon thing).

"We're going to see his brother," Jaken replied matter-of-factly, holding the reins of Ah-Un. "Stop asking so many stupid questions!"

Sesshoumaru didn't say a word. He just continued walking in the lead as always. 'That's not the only thing,' he thought. 'The scent of that half cat demon is with him...'

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The Inuyasha group was walking on a path in a forest(yes, random paths again). They were in their normal walking positions, except that Shippou was running around on the ground instead of resting on Kagome's or Naomi's shoulder.

'I probably shouldn't have given him chocolate so early in the morning,' Kagome thought. 'Oh well, too late to do anything now.'

Inuyasha and Naomi both stopped walking at the same time.

"What's wrong?" everyone else asked at the same time, stopping as well.

"Sesshoumaru!" they both said. Naomi said it happily and Inuyasha said it....unhappily.

Shippou jumped straight onto Naomi's shoulder from his position two yards away and started talking a mile a minute. "SesshoumaruisevilnowIforgottotellyounowyouknowordidyoualreadyknowIdon'tknow!" He jumped off her shoulder again and started running in circles around her feet.

"Huh?" Naomi stared blankly at him.

He jumped back on her shoulder. "Sesshoumaru is evil now, I forgot to tell you. Now you know, or did you already know? I don't know!" He jumped off her shoulder once more and resumed his earlier activity.

"Oh," Naomi said.

Sesshoumaru emerged from the trees, followed by Ah-Un and Jaken.

"Hey there, Sesshoumaru!" Naomi called happily. "Long time no see!"

"Didn'tyouhearmeSesshoumaruisevilstayawayorhe'llkillyouhecametogetInuyasha'sswordsostayback!"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you hear me? Sesshoumaru is evil! Stay away or he'll kill you! He came to get Inuyasha's sword so stay back!" Shippou repeated.

"I think it'll be fine!" Naomi said, laughing a little. She turned back to Sesshoumaru and his company. "Who's this?" She walked over to Ah-Un and smiled at Rin(she's riding him in case you forgot). "Hello there! I'm Naomi! Who're you?"

"Rin!" she replied happily.

Naomi's smile turned into a grin, and then turned to Sesshoumaru. "Going soft?" she teased.

"I can kill you if I wish," Sesshoumaru said calmly. "But I simply came to see if it was true that you were back. Now I shall take my leave." He turned and started walking back into the woods.

"Running away, huh?" Naomi asked, casually examining her claws. "Well, I suppose you're not a much better fighter than you used to be. Why don't I tell everyone about that one time...."

Sesshoumaru stopped dead in his tracks. "Don't...you...dare..." he said through gritted teeth.

Naomi grinned. "I won't tell if you agree to something," she said devilishly.

"What," Sesshoumaru asked, his voice showing none of the anger he felt.

Naomi's grin got wider. "You and Rin come with me....."

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Sesshoumaru was tied up to a tree. Naomi was braiding his hair, with the help of Rin, and putting bows in it. Sesshoumaru was growling deeply and struggling, but he couldn't get free.

"We're almost done!" Naomi said cheerfully, grinning. "You should just give up and stop struggling already! This rope was given to me by my mom and it can't be broken, no matter what."

Sesshoumaru's eyes started to glow red. "Let...me...go...." he growled.

"This rope will also stop your transformation," Naomi said. "So that's useless too."

Rin giggled. "Lord Sesshoumaru, you have such pretty hair!"

Sesshoumaru glared at Naomi, who simply continued braiding. "Don't worry, we're not gonna let anyone see," she said. "And we won't tell anyone either. Right Rin?"

"Right!" the little girl agreed.

"All done!" Naomi said after a few minutes. She and Rin stepped back to admire their work. Sesshoumaru had about fifty or so braids, each with plenty of pink and light blue bows.

"Lord Sesshoumaru looks pretty!" Rin exclaimed.

"Yep! Pretty!" Naomi said, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

"Now let me go," Sesshoumaru growled.

"I think that Rin can do that," Naomi said, walking away.

"Where are you going?!" Sesshoumaru called after her.

"I'm gonna make sure I'm as far away from here as possible before Rin unties you," Naomi replied, grinning at him over her shoulder. "Bye!" Naomi called, waving casually as she quickly sped up.

"Rin...untie me..." Sesshoumaru said.

Rin grinned sheepishly. "Rin doesn't know how to undo the knots!" she said.(I just love how some children talk about themselves in third person! It's so adorable!!)

"WHAT?!?!?!"

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An hour later.....

"Um...Does Rin pull this one?" Rin asked as she pulled on a piece of the rope. It only added to the tangled mess that all but strangled Sesshoumaru.

"No."

"Should Rin go get Lord Jaken?"

"Yes."

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Naomi and the rest of the Inuyasha group walked on the path they had been on earlier. Shippou was now on Naomi's shoulder and everyone else was in their regular positions.

"What'dyoudo?" Shippou asked, still hyper.

"I didn't tell you the first fifty or sixty times you asked, so what makes you think I'll answer you this time?" Naomi replied. It had taken a while, but she could now understand what Shippou was saying.

"Goodpointbutwhat'dyoudo?"

Naomi sighed. "Take a deep breath," she told Shippou.

"Okaynowwhat?"

"Don't breathe out."

Shippou held his breath until he passed out. Everyone clapped and Inuyasha whistled.

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There you go! I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, but expect it sometime this weekend. Naomi will meet another person. Review plz!


	9. Cat demons can be tricky

cherryblosomz: It was nope, you didn't review for chapter 6, yep, it's good to see Naomi getting along, yep, it was an evil cliffie, and yep, it was kind of my sis. Thanx for reviewing!

Starfire77: Thanx!

Hurricane Ivan struck Lagrange yesterday(Thursday). It didn't do much damage around where I am, but I'm not sure about other parts of town. Anyway, there was no school again yesterday(YAY!!) so I worked on my story. There's also not gonna be any school today, either. There's a bad thing, though. I'm not sure where Ivan will be located today, but I _do_ know that me and my sis have to drive for about an hour going north, so we'll probably be heading straight through Ivan.

As far as the story goes, here's another chapter! Umm...I said I was gonna have Naomi meet someone new....Does Kaedae count? I was having writers' block and I couldn't figure out when and where to have Naomi meet the other person(It was gonna be Kikyou). Anyway, there's a little Inu/Kag fluff in this one, and I'll try to put in a little Mir/San fluff in later chapters. You're probably getting tired of my rambling, so I'll just go ahead and let you read the story!

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Naomi lay on the roof of Kaedae's(sp?) hut. It had been three days since the she had seen Sesshoumaru and four since she had seen Kouga.(She met Sesshoumaru the day after she met Kouga. Since you probably don't wanna do any math, I'll just go ahead and tell you that Naomi's been with the Inuyasha group for exactly 11 days, or 1 week and 4 days.) They had gotten to Kaedae's village the night before. Everyone was surprised at first, for most of them had heard about the half demon assassin(Naomi was an assassin-for-hire), but then they welcomed her, seeing as how she was Inuyasha's friend. Kagome had gone back to her own time that morning. Since they weren't traveling, Naomi had decided to try something. She waited to see if her little "experiment" had worked...

"SHIPPOU!!!!"

"AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

Naomi sat up and stifled a yawn. She looked down to see that a small, reddish blur was being chased around the hut by a very enraged half demon.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!" Inuyasha yelled. He had several doodles on his face, apparently left by a black marker.

"What's going on?" Naomi asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

Shippou instantly changed direction and jumped straight into Naomi's arms from the ground. Inuyasha immediately came to a halt and glared at Shipou, who hid behind Naomi for protection.

"Well? What's going on?" Naomi repeated.

"THAT LITTLE RODENT DREW ON MY FACE WHEN I WAS ASLEEP!!!" Inuyasha yelled, pointing angrily at Shippou.

"I-I didn't!" Shippou said, looking at Naomi for help.

Naomi simply sighed. "Inuyasha, perhaps you're mistaken," she said. "After all, what makes you think that a cute little fox demon like Shippou would do something like that to you?"

"If he didn't do it, then who did?" Inuyasha asked. Though his vioce had lowered, he sounded more threatening than when he had been yelling.

"I don't know," Naomi said, shrugging.

"Then why don't you just hand over the brat and I'll pound a confession out of him," Inuyasha growled.

"Inuyasha, calm down," Naomi said. "Why don't you just go wash it off and forget about it?"

Inuyasha walked off towards the river, grumbling about stupid little fox demons. As soon as he was out of sight and hearing range, Naomi looked at Shippou.

"Can you keep a secret?" she asked. Shippou nodded and Naomi, somehow keeping a straight face, brought out from her pocket the black marker that she had used to draw on Inuyasha's face.

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"Just go get her already!" Naomi shouted, frustrated. She leapt into the tree that Inuyasha was sitting in. "You've been moping around since she left two days ago!"

"I haven't been moping around!" Inuyasha shouted back. "Actually, I'm glad she's gone!"

Naomi looked him straight in the eyes. He fidgeted a little. "You're lying."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Ah-hah!" Naomi said triumphantly.

Realizatin of what he said dawned on him. "YOU TRICKED ME!!!!"

"I only got you to tell the truth," Naomi said smugly. "Now, got get her!"

"No way!" Inuyasha said, crossing his arms.

An idea suddenly popped into Naomi's head. "That's probably for the best, actually," she said, pretending to consider something.

"Huh? What're you talking about?"

'He's playing right into my hands...' "Oh, it's nothing," Noami said, shaking the pretend thoughts away. "I should probably be going now." She hopped out of the tree and started walking away. '3...2...1...'

"Wait!" Inuyasha called. "Tell me what you're talking about!"

Naomi hid her grin beneath a nonchalant expression as she casually glanced back at him. "Kagome just said something about going on a....what did she call it? Oh yeah... going on a date with some guy named... Hobo? No... Hoko? No..." She looked up as she pretended to think.

"Hojo?"

"That's the one!" she said. Then a look of pretend horror crossed her face. "Kagome told me not to tell! Inuyasha, don't tell her I told you!"

Inuyasha growled low and deep. "Keh," he mumbled. "I won't tell." Exactly the response Naomi had been planning on. Kagome hadn't really said that she was going on a date with him, of course. She had said the he had asked her a lot of times and that he couldn't take a hint.

"Thanks!" Naomi said and started walking away. She heard a rustle in the leaves of the tree and turned to see that Inuyasha had taken off. She grinned. She absolutely loved tricking people, whether it was for good or bad. Luckily, this time it was for good.

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Inuyasha came back with Kagome later that day.

"Kagome!" Shippou shrieked, flying into her arms. "You came back a day earlier than usual!"

"Yeah, well, Inuyasha came and got me," Kagome said, hugging Shippou.

"Keh," Inuyasha said, crossing his arms. He saw Naomi, sitting cross-legged on the floor of Kaedae's hut. She had no expression on her face, but inside she was laughing hysterically. "Naomi, I gotta talk to you."

"What is it?" she asked, looking at him with pretend curiousness.

"Come outside for a minute."

Naomi shrugged, stood up, and followed Inuyasha outside. He stopped right under the tree, then turned and looked at her.

"Kagome never said that she had a date with Hojo!"

"She didn't?" Naomi asked, pretending to be very surprised. She then pretended to think about it. "Hm... Maybe she said that he just asked her a lot..." She looked back at Inuyasha, smiling brightly. "Sorry about that! It must've been a mistake!"

Inuyasha didn't believe her, but he had no evidence to support it.

Both were interrupted from their thoughts as two very familiar sounds were heard from inside the hut.

"PERVERT!!!"

WHACK

"Idiot..." both half demons said at the same time, shaking their heads.

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There you go! In the next chapter, I'll probably bring in Kikyou. Or maybe I should tell that little secret about Sesshoumaru.... Review plz and tell me which one you think I should do!(As well as maybe a suggestion about _how_ I should do it!)


	10. The secret revealed!

Starfire77: Glad you liked it!

cherryblosomz: In the chapter where Naomi met Sesshoumaru, she was talking about telling the others "about that one time". Oh, and I finally got around to using your idea in this chapter! At least, I think that's what you were talking about...

Sarah hates Kikyo: So, you hate Kikyo, huh? lol

Results: Sesshoumaru's secret: 2(Sarah hates Kikyo and cherryblosomz) Kikyo: .... (crickets chirp)

I think we all know what that means! You get to find out about Sesshoumaru's secret!

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Naomi sank lower into the water, sighing happily. "This feels so good," she muttered.

"That's for sure," Kagome agreed. "And I don't think Miroku will spy on us anymore, especially not after last time."

Naomi grinned as she remembered what she had done when she caught him spying. "How long was it before he woke up? Two hours? Three?"

"Four," Sango replied.

They still had their towels wrapped around themselves, just in case.

"Naomi," Shippou said, thinking about something. "Do you remember the other day when we saw Sesshoumaru?"

"Yep!" Naomi said cheerfully. "It was five days ago!(thus making her total time spent with the group come to...1 week and 6 days) What about it?"

"You said something about telling us something," Shippou said.

"That's right," Sango said. "I remember."

"Me too," Kagome said. "And he really wanted to keep it a secret... What was it? And what did you do to him?"

Naomi grinned. "Do you really wanna know?"

"Yes!" they all replied.

"Okay, but you have to keep it a secret!"

"Okay!" all of them said.

"First I'll tell you what I did." Naomi giggled before telling them what happened. They burst into laughter.

"And he...actually let you...do that?" Sango asked through gasps for breath.

"I had to tie him down with an indestructible rope," Naomi admitted.

"It's hard to imagine!" Kagome said, wiping tears of joy from her eyes.

"Now I'll bet you wanna know what the secret is, right?"

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed.

Naomi took a deep breath. "You see...."

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_A twelve year old Naomi was walking in the woods. It was night, and there was a half moon in the sky. Inuyasha had gone to sleep, and she had been bored, so she came out in search for something to do. She had gone into the forest where the demons were in hopes of finding something to fight._

_She came to a clearing and stopped in her tracks. Sesshoumaru was there, fighting a demon(To avoid any confusion about age and stuff, let's just say that he looked the same age as in the series). The demon was only a simple lizard demon, about as tall as Naomi, yet Sesshoumaru was still having a hard time of it._

_Naomi dived behind the bushes, grinning from ear to ear. 'Sesshoumaru can't fight! Wait until Inuyasha hears about this!'_

_Sesshoumaru was panting heavily. He had several cuts on his body, none too sever. The demon came charging at him, and he dodged just in time. Then he whirled around and charged the demon. He held up his claws, which were glowing with a greenish light._

_"Poison cla-" He tripped over a rock and was sent sprawling._

_'He's a klutz!' Naomi thought, giggling._

_Sesshoumaru heard her, but he ignored it. He had other things on his mind.... He quickly jumped to his feet and faced the demon, which was charging again. He jumped up and out of its path, measured the distance, then landed on the demon's back. It started thrashing wildly, and it was all Sesshoumaru could do to hold onto its thick neck._

_By this time, Naomi was rolling on the ground with laughter. She couldn't help herself. It was too funny!_

_"Are you gonna just keep laughing or help me?" Sesshoumaru growled, trying to seem threatening and hold onto the wild demon at the same time._

_"Just...give me...a minute..." Naomi said between gasps for breath. She finally stopped laughing enough to get up and walk over to the fighting demons. She bit her lip to keep from bursting out laughing again. The demon bucked, and Sesshoumaru's grip failed him. He soon found himself face down in the dirt at Naomi's feet._

_It was all she could do to keep from laughing once more. Then she gracefully sliced through the demon, easily cutting it in half. She walked over and helped Sesshoumaru up, who then brushed himself off._

_"Something you wanna say?" Naomi asked, examining her claws. Sesshoumaru muttered something unintelligible. "What was that? I didn't quite hear."_

_"Thanks," he growled just loud enough for her to hear._

_Naomi grinned. "You're gonna be so embarrassed when I tell Inuyasha!"_

_"Don't....tell....ANYONE!!" he hissed through clenched teeth. "Or I'll kill you!!"_

_"Alright, alright," Naomi said. "I'll keep your secret." 'For now," she silently added._

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(Naomi told about all that, just so ya know)

The others stared at her openmouthed after she finished her story. Then they burst into shrieks of laughter. They laughed until their sides hurt, and then some.

Gasping for breath, Naomi was the first to find her voice again. "You can't...tell...anyone though..."

"Right!" they all agreed when they found their own voices. They all grinned at each other, then went back to enjoying their bath.

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The Inuyasha group was back on the trail the next morning. Everything was absolutely wonderful. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, a nice breeze was blowing...

"Naomi!"

'Not him!' Naomi prayed silently as she turned slowly to see who had called her name. 'Anyone but him....'

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There's chapter 10 for ya! Anyway, most of these chapters have been mainly fillers, so I'm gonna skip the meeting with Kikyou and go ahead and advance the plot line some in the next chapter. Review plz!!


	11. Hikaru and the hooded one

Starfire77: Thank you! You are one of the only dedicated readers out there who actually reviews!!

Okay, it's finally up! Chapter 10! You get to see Naomi as she used to be and meet a new character, just as promised. Also, this chapter will advance the plotline a little so it's not just filler after filler. Anyway, here ya go!

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_Naomi(this is a few years before she remet Inuyasha, so her hair's down) ran, carrying three kids. One, a four year old, was riding on her back. She was asleep, and her brown hair was falling in her face. Two were in her arms. Both were asleep as well. One was another little girl, six, and the other was a little boy, seven. The girl also had long brown hair, and the boy had short black hair. Suddenly, the little boy stirred. He opened his hazel eyes and looked up at Naomi._

_"Who....Who're you?" he asked groggily. "Did you...save me from the demons?"_

_"That's right, kid," Naomi replied without so much as looking at him. "You and your sisters."_

_The boy looked a little surprised. "What about the others?!"_

_"What **about** them?" Naomi asked. "You and your sisters, being the village head's kids, were worth the most money. I wasn't about to risk my neck for the other little brats!"_

_The boy was stunned. Then he slid out of Naomi's arm and started running the other direction._

_Naomi stopped and reached her free hand out to him. "Hey! Kid!" she called. "Get back here idiot! Where do you think you're going?!" He didn't answer or slow down at all. "Dammit..." Naomi put the girls down and shook them awake. They both had hazel eyes just like their brother. "Go back to the village," Naomi said. "When you get there, tell them who it was that saved you."_

_She turned and was about to start after the boy when the older girl said, "What about the demons? Won't they get us?"_

_Naomi threw down two necklaces made of rosary. "Put them on," she ordered. They obeyed. "As long as you wear them, No demons or half demons except me will be able to see, smell, or sense you. Now go!" The girls got up and started running towards the village. Naomi ran after the boy, cursing the whole time. _

_He was a lot farther ahead, and she couldn't see even see him. She could smell him, though. 'Damn kid,' she thought. 'I better get paid extra for having to chase him down like this!'_

_Less than a minute later, she caught up to him. "Idiot!" she yelled fiercely as she came to a stop in front of him, blocking his path. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"_

_The boy came to a stop. He looked down sadly. "It's just...I wanna go save them..."_

_"Well, that's just too bad!"_

_Hikaru looked up at her, eyes big and pleading. "Please..." He looked like he was about to cry._

_Naomi was startled. 'Is this kid about to cry?!' "Alright, alright," she said quickly. "We'll go save them!"_

_Hikaru's expression changed from sad to delighted. "Really?!" he asked._

_"Yeah," Naomi replied. She crouched down for him to climb on her back. He did, then she stood up and ran towards the demons' lair._

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"They better pay me extra!" Naomi muttered. She was carrying Hikaru and another boy on her back. Two girls were in one arm and two boys were in the other. Their ages ranged from four to eight, and all were asleep except for Hikaru. Naomi had several cuts and bruises all over her body, and it was obvious that she had fought many demons. Her left sleeve had been torn completely off and her right pant's leg had been ripped to shreds from the knee down. Due to her injuries and her burden, she was walking instead of running.

"Idiot," she muttered, clearly refering to Hikaru. "You almost got killed!" When in the demons' lair, Naomi had been busy with a few of them while on of them started sneaking up behind her. She didn't see it, but Hikaru did. He had thrown rocks at it to get its attention. It had started for him, but Naomi had killed it just in time.

"But at least everyone's safe!" he said happily.

"Hmph."

They got to the village a little while later. Naomi crouched down, putting the kids down. Many mothers and fathers rushed up, waking up their kids and hugging them very tightly. Naomi stood up straight again, and looked for the village head.

An old man, slightly balding, came towards her. He was a little hunched and was using a cane. "Thank you, Miss Naomi!" he said.

"You're welcome," Naomi said politely. She was always polite to the ones paying her in hopes of getting more.

The old man drew out a coin pouch and handed it to Naomi. She took it and bowed, then counted it. Yes, there was extra. She bowed once more and walked out of the village, heading towards the nearby woods.

"Wait!"

Naomi turned to see Hikaru standing there. "What, kid?"

Hikaru grinned. "I just wanna say thanks a lot!" he said. "You saved my best and only friend!"

"Don't mention it," Naomi said.

"And...I wanna give you something!"

"Huh?" Naomi crouched down as Hikaru ran towards her, his hands cupped around something. She held out her hands, and he deposited a single coin in them.

"It's my life savings," he explained. "I want you to have it."

Naomi sighed. "Keep it," she said, giving it back to him. "I don't need it." She usually toook anything that was offered to her, but for some reason she felt close to Hikaru. She didn't know why, but she did. There was a little nagging in the back of her mind that told her they were alike.

She stood up again and started walking away, leaving Hikaru to stare after her. "Uh...It was Miss Naomi, right?"

"Just Naomi," she replied, glancing back at him before disappearing into the trees.

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A 17-year old version of Hikaru walked along a path. His hair wasn't any longer than it used to be, but it was a lot messier. He was wearing a brown traveling outfit(not in the mood for figuring out and describing clothes right now...). He had no weapons, unless you count his traveling staff/walking stick as one. He had been going from village-to-village, searching for someone for a while now. He sighed. 'Maybe I should give up...' he thought. Then he just happened to see someone in the distance. He squinted, trying to decide who it was.

"Naomi!" he cried out, running towards her.

Naomi turned towards him slowly.

He finally reached her and grasped her hands in his. "There you are!" he said.

Naomi laughed nervously. "W-what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I've been looking for you since we got seperated a month ago," he replied. "I've battled many demons, faced many hardships, and-"

"Who's that?" Inuyasha asked.

Hikaru suddenly noticed the others that were with Naomi. "Who are those people?" he asked.

Naomi sighed. "Hikaru, these are my friends, Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou," she said. "Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou, this is my, er, stalker, Hikaru."

"Pleased to meet you!" Hikaru said, grinning. "Any friends of Naomi's are friends of mine!" He apparently missed what she said about him being a stalker. "She saved me from a demon when I was younger, you know!"

"And you've kept annoying me once a month since then," Naomi muttered. Then she got an excellent idea. "Hikaru...I've been working on a new technique, and I was wondering if you could tell me whether or not it works."

"Anything for you!"

Naomi grinned. "Close your eyes and slowly to 50. When you open them, you shouldn't be able to see, hear, or feel me."

"Really?"

"Yep!" Naomi said, grinning mischievously. "It'll be like I'm not even here! Oh, and no matter what you hear, don't open your eyes until you're done counting!"

"Alright!" Hikaru closed his eyes and started counting.

Naomi ran off. She grabbed Inuyasha's hand, who grabbed Kagome's hand, who grabbed Miroku's hand, who grabbed Sango's-

WHACK

Er...New formation. Kagome let go of Miroku's hand and grabbed Sango's while Kilala carried the unconscious Miroku after them.

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A little while later....

"50!" Hikaru opened his eyes and looked around. "It worked, Naomi! You can show yourself again now!" He waited. And waited. And waited. "Uh...Naomi?"

"She left," a little flea said, jumping onto Hikaru's shoulder.

"You're that flea that always travels with her," Hikaru said. "Myouga, right?

"Correct," Myouga answered.

"How'd you know she left?"

"Because I saw her," he replied. "I was about to tell her something, but she stepped on me without realizing it."

"So...she wasn't really trying out a new technique, was she?"

"I'm afraid not."

Hikaru sighed. "I had always suspected that she was just trying to get away from me," he said. "I just never had any proof. Anyway, what'd you wanna tell her?"

Myouga sat cross-legged on his shoulder and cleared his throat. "You see, I've found some news that she'll probably want to know..."

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"So that's what happened," Inuyasha said after Naomi finished telling them about Hikaru and how they met. They were sitting inside a hut. Inuyasha was sitting on the wall next to the door, Kagome was sitting against a bundle of hay, Sango was next to Kagome, Shippou was in Kagome's arms, Kilala(kitty form) was in Sango's arms, Naomi was sitting on a bundle of hay, and Miroku was sitting against another bundle of hay as close to the girls as they'd let him get(which wasn't very close).

"When he was fifteen, he left his village to look for me," Naomi said, sighing. "He's found me every month or two since then."

"I think it's so romantic," Kagome said wistfully. "I bet he'd follow you to the ends of the earth..."

"It's not romantic!" Naomi complained. "It's annoying!"

"Naomi!!" a voice from outside the hut called.

'Damn! How'd he find me again so fast?!' Naomi got up and went to the door of the hut. She peered out, only opening it as much as she had to. If she was lucky, he might miss her...

"Hikaru! Over here!" Shippou called, running outside and waving to him.

There went that hope. Naomi glared at Shippou while Hikaru changed direction and went over to them. Naomi sighed, admitting defeat, and stepped completely out of the hut, the others following.

Hikaru stopped and bent over a little, panting for breath. "Naomi...News..." he said. "Myouga...tell..."

Myouga jumped from Hikaru's shoulder to Naomi's. "Long time no see," he said. "It's been two months, right?"

"Yeah," Naomi agreed. "Since you showed me that job killing a family of demons in the other village. They didn't pay as much as you said they would, though." Myouga had been showing Naomi different jobs since she had become an assassin, which was a very long time ago. His intention, as Naomi suddenly realized, was to keep her away from Inuyasha....

"You knew!" Naomi and Inuyasha cried out at the same time.

"Um..." Myouga gulped. "Kn-knew what?"

Naomi grabbed him and held him between two of her claws. "You knew about everything that had happened, but you didn't tell me anything about Inuyasha. In fact, you even tried to keep me away from him."

"And you never told me anything about her losing her memories!" Inuyasha said, glaring at Myouga.

"Um...well....you see..." Myouga decided to change the subject. "Naomi, I have urgent news for you! There are rumors flying around that someone has been asking for you!"

"Huh?" She immediately forgot about the previous topic. "Who is it? What do they want?"

"I'm not sure of either question," Myouga said. "No one know hardly anything about him. He keeps his features hidden under a hooded black cloak, and he gives his name to no one. Do you make anything of it?"

Naomi didn't speak for several minutes. When she did, her voice was rather shaky. "Is he a demon or a human?"

"Nobody knows. He keeps his scent from demons by using a very powerful kind of magic."

Naomi's ears twitched. "He's a very powerful sorceror, then," she concluded. She seemed to be lost in thought.

"Naomi?" Kagome asked. "What's wrong?"

Naomi snapped out of it and shook her head. "It's nothing," she said. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?" Sango asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Naomi said. "I think I'll just go take a walk in the woods..."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Hikaru said, finally catching his breath. "After all, what if this guy wants to hurt you?"

"Hmph," Naomi said. "What kind of half demon do you take me for? I can take care of myself, ya know!"

"Yeah, but still-"

"I'll be fine," Naomi said with an air of finality. Then she walked off into the trees, throwing Myouga down behind her.

"What was that all about?" Shippou asked no one in particular.

"I'm not sure," Kagome replied.

"Was it just me, or did she seem to change when Myouga talked about that guy?" Hikaru asked.

"It wasn't your imagination," Miroku answered. "Naomi must know this person or something."

"I wonder who he is," Sango said thoughtfully.

"Who knows?" Inuyasha said. "All we can do now is wait for her to come back and explain, which I hope will be soon."

"Wow..." Kagome said.

"What?"

"You actually said something smart for once!"

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As soon as the others dissapeared from view, Naomi jumped on a low branch of the nearest tree. She continued on in this way, jumping from branch to branch, tree to tree. 'It'll be harder for them to find my scent,' she thought to herself. 'If it **is** him, then it'll be safer for my friends if I'm not around them.'

Naomi soon came to a river. She hopped out of the tree she was in and landed on the ground silently. She walked to the water's edge and looked in at the fish, glistening in the sunlight. Naomi sat and dangled her feet in the water as she stared across to the other side, lost in thought.

'How did he survive?' she thought. 'I saw mother kill him, even as she herself was dying...But there's no mistaking it. He's the only sorceror powerful enough to hide his scent.'

A rustle in the bushes startled her out of her thoughts. She looked over, but saw nothing. 'It must've been the wind,' she though as she layed back and closed her eyes, folding her hands behind her hand. 'Wait a minute....'

"There is no wind!"

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Hehehe....ain't I evil? Anyway, next chapter will probably be up by next weekend. I'll put in one of these :

a. The main bad guy

b. Some demon underling

c. Another old friend of Naomi's

d. A combination of two or more of the above

Vote for which one(s) you like best!! By the way, when the inevitable final showdown gets here, I'm gonna bring in a character that was in this story in one of the earlier chapters. If I don't, my friend, Anna Skandalakis(very weird last name, I know...Hardly anyone at our school can pronounce it right!), will go insane and try to kill me. Literally!


	12. Meet Toshiro and Keitaru

DISCLAIMER: I just realized something....I've been forgetting this!! To make up for it.... I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha. I don't own Inuyasha.

Poll results: Mix of main bad guy and underling: 1 vote out of 1. (cherryblosomz)

Starfire77: Thanx! Both for reviewing and for the compliment!

cherryblosomz: Thanx for reviewing and voting!

Kawabashi: IT'S ABOUT FRIGGIN' TIME!!!!! ahem Anyway, now to reply to all your reviews....(for chap 5 review) Yes you did read my story! (for chap 6 review) gasp You are??? (chap 7 review) Actually....It was before Anna got into Kouga. And yeah, she does print out WAY too many pics of him! (chap 8 review) No, you don't annoy me! You just....no, you _do_ annoy me. j/k, and thanx! (chap 9 review) If you like Mir/San moments, just read the first part of this chapter...hehehe....Anyway, yeah, that's a pretty long review! (chap 10 review) .....You should know by now....I _don't_ think..... (chap 11 review) Go ahead and tell her!! Oh, and he's coming in when the final battle gets here, which should be a good ways away. And yeah, he _is_ cute!!(no more reviews) Thank you for FINALLY reading!!! Now, you just need to get your own story up! And hopefully you won't wait for another 6 chapters before reading again.....

Thank you everyone who has ever reviewed!! you make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! lol

On with the story!

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Kagome was sitting outside against the wall of the hut, watching Shippou and Kilala play together. Inuyasha was laying on the roof, and Hikaru was leaning against a tree, still holding his traveling stick. Miroku and Sango were sitting side-by-side( a recipe for disaster...) on a log that was next to the hut. Everyone was waiting for Naomi to get back. Since nothing really was going on, Miroku thought they needed a little exitement.....

Miroku stretched. Then he brought his arm down slowly towards its destination. Down....down...d- No, that's far enough.

Sango's eyes went wide in surprise. His arm was....around her shoulder!!(you thought he was gonna grope her again, didn't ya?) She blushed, completely surprised and speechless. She was too stunned to even push his hand away or anything. 'Actually, this seems nice....Maybe I'll stay like this for a while.....Wait a minute! What am I thinking?!' She looked at him and finally found her voice. "W-What are you doing?"

Miroku smiled at her. "Nothing," he said innocently.

Sango looked down, blushing even more. 'I can't slap him, he didn't do anything wrong....Maybe we _can_ stay like this...' She suddenly stopped blushing as she felt a familiar hand in a familiar place.

SSSLLLLAAAAPPPP

Sango stood up walked away angrily, leaving Miroku with a bright red hand print on his cheek.

'Why'd he have to go and grope me like that?! It was the perfect time to say something romantic!'

'Why'd I have to go and grope her like that?! It was the perfect time to say something romantic!'

Hikaru suddenly stood up straight looked towards the trees, alarmed. Naomi had only been gone about ten minutes, but he was worried about her for some reason. "I think...I think Naomi's in trouble!" he exclaimed.

"Hm?" Myouga asked, looking at him. He had assumed a position on the boy's shoulder.

Hikaru shuddered, feeling a chill go down his spine. "Yes, I'm positive! She's in danger!"

"How do you know?" Kagome asked.

"I just...have this feeling..." Hikaru said. "It's hard to explain. All I know is that she's in trouble and we have to go save her!" Without another word, he ran off into the trees.

"Hey!" Myouga called as he fell off Hikaru's shoulder. Hikaru didn't even stop to wait.

"Let's go," Inuyasha said. He ran off, and the others got on Kilala as she transformed. Myouga, however, was being left behind. He quickly hopped after them.

"Wait for me!!"

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Naomi's eyes shot open as she quickly jumped to her feet and whirled around. She didn't see anything, but she could smell a demon. 'Good, it's not him,' she thought. 'He'd hide his scent. I should be able to kill any other demon without the use of my sword.' She cracked her knuckles, ready to face the demon. All was quiet for a few minutes, then the bushes rustled once more.

Naomi was getting impatient. "Come out already!" she snapped. "I don't have all day, ya know!"

Suddenly, a fox demon jumped out of the bushes and ran at her(looks likes a person, just so ya know). He had black hair with silver streaks that reached to his waist. His blue eyes danced with the same mischief that was in all foxes. He was wearing a black outfit similar to a ninja's. He held up three throwing stars in one hand as he ran, then suddenly stopped and threw them at Naomi. She dodged them all easily.

"You are Naomi, correct?" he asked.

"Who are you?!" Naomi demanded, ignoring his question. "What do you want?!"

"I am Toshiro, the fox ninja," he replied. "And Lord Keitaru has sent me."

"So he really is alive, then," Naomi concluded. She held up her hand, flexing her claws. "Come and kill me, if you can."

"Very well," Toshiro said. He jumped high into the air and threw a few more of his throwing stars. Naomi ran straight for him, cutting through the throwing stars with her claws. Toshiro moved away just before she got him and landed in a tree.

"You're a coward!" Naomi yelled.

"No, I'm just smart enough not to get hit."

The fight went on for several minutes in much the same way. When it seemed that both were getting bored and annoyed, something different happened. When Toshiro landed on a tree this time, the tree turned dark. From the tree, darkness spread out in every direction. Soon, Naomi couldn't see a thing.

"What's going on?!" she asked. "What did you do?!"

"Just a little present from Lord Keitaru," Toshiro said. Naomi couldn't see him through the darkness, but she was certain that he was smirking.

'Dammit! If I can't see him, how can I fight him?!' She drew her sword and kept looking around in vain.

"I'm here," whispered a voice behind her. She whirled around, swinging her sword. It connected with something, and soon Naomi could make out a grinning Toshiro not ten inches away. He, too, had drawn his sword, and now they were locked.

"You can't fight without resorting to trickery, huh?" Naomi asked, her teeth clenched as she tried to push him backwards.

"I can," Toshiro replied. "I just do not wish to." He pulled away and faded into the darkness, laughing. She tried to locate the source of laughter, but it was hard. Suddenly it stopped.

"You're more of a coward than Keitaru is!" Naomi shouted, trying desperapetly to get him to talk so she'd know where he was.

"Have you ever fought him?" Toshiro asked. His voice seemed to be all around her, as if it was nowhere yet everywhere at the same time.

"No," Naomi answered truthfully. 'Where the hell is this guy?!'

"Then you cannot judge who is more cowardly," Toshiro said. "Only the ones who have ever fought him know of his tricks. He plays games with the mind, making you see things that aren't there, or making a barrier of darkness like this one."

"How are you any different?!" Naomi yelled.

"I do not make one kill a friend." His voice had changed, grown cold.

"Wha-" Naomi stopped as a sword pressed against her neck. Toshiro was right behind her.

"He will do anything it takes to kill someone," he said. "Anything at all."

Naomi was too stunned to do anything. No demon had ever gotten her to the point where they could kill her if they wished.

"Naomi!"

Naomi strained to see in the darkness who had called her name. A long way off, she could make out the very dim figure of someone running toward her.....

"You are lucky for two reasons," Toshiro said. "One, your pathetic friends are here. The other is that I am simply a messenger, and the message is this." He drew a dagger and stuck her in the arm. Then he dissapeared, taking the sword and the dagger with him.

Naomi clutched her arm in pain, falling to her knees. The darkness lifted, and she saw who it was that had called her name. "Hikaru..." she muttered as she collapsed completely.

Hikaru caught her before she hit the ground, throwing his traveling stick to the side.

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Toshiro stood at the mouth of a large cave. There was a purplish colored barrier around it. He walked through, the barrier parting to allow him in. Then it closed quickly behind him.

"So, Toshiro, has she been poisoned?"

Toshiro was speechless. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing right. "Are you...Are you...drinking...._tea_??"

A cloaked and hooded figure sat at a low table. Toshiro was right, he _was_ drinking tea. "Do you have a problem with that?" he asked calmly. "We have a visitor, so I thought it would be appropriate."

Toshiro looked and saw that there was another sitting at the opposite side of the table. Her face was hidden by the shadows of the cave. "Good day, M'lady," he said, bowing politely.

"So, has she been poisoned by the dagger I gave you?" Keitaru asked impatiently.

"Yes, M'lord," Toshiro replied.

"Good. You are dismissed."

"Yes, M'lord." Toshiro walked back the way he came, glancing at the visitor. 'I can't see her face, but....she's kinda cute....' Then he exited.

"So, do we have a deal?" the visitor asked once Toshiro had left.

"Of course. While I fight Naomi, Toshiro will get rid of the others for Naraku."

"He'll be pleased to hear that," the visitor said. She leaned forward for her cup, drinking a little more.

"Lady Kagura(weren't expecting that, were ya?), won't you join us in fighting?"

"No thanks," she said absently. Her mind was on other things at the moment. 'Always the messenger!! Why doesn't NARAKU come out here and negotiate this himself?!?! He's probably still mad about losing that bet!! What a sore loser!!'

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"Hmph. Stupid Kagura. Always making stupid bets she knows she'll win. Hopefully she'll get killed by that Keitaru guy," Naraku muttered. In his high-pitch immitating voice, he said, "'I bet you can't even get the jewel shards from Kouga without me helping you!!'"

Kanna just sat there, saying nothing.

"You don't think I'm weak, do you, Kanna?"

Kanna didn't say a word.

"Well?"

".....Yes."

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"Naomi!"

Inuyasha came running up next. "What happened?!" he demanded.

"I'm not sure," Hikaru said, never looking away from Naomi. "She's really cold, almost like she's..." He couldn't quite bring himself to say it.

"She's alive," Inuyasha said firmly. "It's faint, but her heart's still beating."

Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good," he said.

Kilala came next, the others riding on her back. She landed and they all got off.

"What's wrong with Naomi?!" Shippou asked, fearful.

"I don't know," Hikaru said. "But she's alive, and that's all that matters now."

"How did you know?" Kagome asked. "About her being in trouble, I mean."

Hikaru shrugged.

"And how did you get through the barrier?" Miroku asked.

"What barrier?"

"You mean, you didn't notice the dark barrier that surrounded this area?" Sango asked.

Hikaru shook his head.

"Let's talk about all this later," Inuyasha said. "Right now, we need to get Naomi out of here. Whoever did this to her might come back."

"Right," Hikaru agreed. He grabbed her sword and they were off.

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"How dare they leave me like that!" Myouga mumbled as he hopped along in the woods. "I'll give them a piece of my mind..."

He suddenly saw them coming toward him. Kagome was riding on Inuyasha's back, and the others were riding on Kilala. Naomi seemed to be unconscious.

Myouga immediately started hopping faster. "Lord Inuya-"

SQUISH

Inuyasha never even saw him.

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Naomi opened her eyes slowly. She was in the hut she had been in earlier. She sat up slowly and leaned against the nearest wall. She noticed that her arm had been bandaged, and was grateful. She looked around, surveying the area. It was night. Naomi could tell by looking out the window. Everyone was asleep in their normal positions, with the additioin of Hikaru. He was sleeping, Naomi saw, right beside her. 'He must have been watching over me...' she thought.

He stirred and opened his eyes. "Are you okay?!" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah," Naomi said. That was a lie, of course. Her arm was throbbing painfully, and she knew that Keitaru's poison had been injected into her.

"If you're sure," Hikaru said, unconvinced.

Naomi looked out the window at the stars and the full moon(she's been with them for 2 weeks, just to refresh your memory). 'In two weeks, the new moon will come again....but Keitaru might kill me before I turn full human again.....'

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That's all. Next chapter will be up in maybe a week, maybe less since there's no school on Monday. Review plz!!


	13. The poison, the flowers, and the past

DISCLAIMER - I don't own Inuyasha. I only own Naomi, Hikaru, Toshiro, and Keitaru.

Hi! I FINALLY updated!!

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Naomi winced and clenched her teeth, but continued walking. Nobody noticed.

It was the day after she had fought Toshiro. They were on the road again. Hikaru and Myouga had joined them.  
  
Inuyasha walked in the lead, as always. Behind him came Naomi, Kagome, and Hikaru, side-by-side, in that order. Hikaru had been walking beside Naomi earlier, but she had convinced Kagome to walk between them. Shippou was on Hikaru's shoulder, and they were both talking nonstop about nothing in particular. Sango, carrying Kilala, and Miroku brought up the rear. Speaking of rears.....  
  
SLAP  
  
Miroku rubbed the new handprint on his cheek while Sango fumed. Kilala had jumped out of her arms by then and walked beside her instead(Myouga buried in her fur), sensing her anger.  
  
"Does that happen often?" Hikaru asked Shippou.  
  
"All the time," he replied. "I should tell you about the one time when they....." The two continued babbling away, Hikaru asking about 20 questions a second, and Shippou answering them just as fast.  
  
"I see why you didn't wanna walk beside him now," Kagome whispered to Naomi. "He's kinda annoying!!"  
  
Naomi simply nodded, not trusting her voice. If she spoke, then the others might be able to tell that she was in pain. 'The poison's starting to affect me....'  
  
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Kagura stood in front of Naraku's castle. She had flown earlier off to get some fresh air(as well as to get away from the sore loser), and was just now returning. She noticed a bundle of flowers sitting there. She picked them up curiously and looked at them. There were all kinds of wildflowers mixed together. Some were purple, some blue, some yellow, and some white. Also, there was a single red rose in the very center. A note was under the flowers, and she picked it up and read it.  
  
**Flowers for my dear Kagura.**  
  
"Huh?" She looked at the note, confused. It was signed, "Your secret admirer". Then she smiled, smelling the flowers before disappearing inside the castle.  
  
Toshiro watched from the trees, smiling.  
  
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Naomi continued to walk along, trying not to show any signs of weakness. As the morning turned to evening, it was getting even harder to do this. Though the poison hadn't spread, it was still painful. She didn't know how much longer she'd be able to keep it up....  
  
"Inuyasha, I think we need to rest."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Everyone looked at Kagome, who had spoken, then to Inuyasha.  
  
"Why? You're not tired, are you?"  
  
"Of course I am! And I'm sure everyone else is too!" Was it Naomi's imagination, or did Kagome glance at her when she said that?  
  
"We can't rest! We have to keep going and find more jewel shards!"  
  
"We're resting!"  
  
"We're going!"  
  
"We're RESTING!!"  
  
"We're GOING!!"  
  
"WE'RE RESTING!!!!"  
  
"WE'RE GOING!!!!"  
  
"Sit."  
  
CRASH  
  
"We're resting."  
  
"....Fine...."  
  
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Naomi(looks the same age but is wearing her old kimono and her hair is down) sat in the branches of a tree, looking at the clouds. The sun shone brightly overhead.  
  
"Naomi."  
  
She looked down to see her mom standing there. She wasn't in her regular clothes, however. Her shirt was greenish, as were her pants. Her sword had a new sheath, the same color as everything else.  
  
"Is that the outfit father has been working on?" Naomi asked.  
  
"Yes," her mom replied. "And I have something for you." She held up her other clothes(the black ones Naomi wears now), neatly folded. "I repaired all the rips and tears by hand. Sorry I wasn't able to make you a new one entirely."  
  
Naomi's eyes shone brightly. "It's fine!" she said, hopping down. Her mother handed her the clothes, and she grinned. "Thank you very much! I'll go put them on right now!" She ran to the hut that was nearby, grinning the whole time.  
  
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Naomi awoke from her dream to see Hikaru shaking her slightly. "We're going," he said.  
  
Naomi nodded and stood up. She winced slightly, having forgotten about the pain until that moment. The movement went unnoticed, or so she thought.  
  
"We'll have to rest again in another little while," Hikaru whispered to Kagome as they started again on their journey.  
  
Kagome nodded, looking over at the oblivious Naomi with concern.  
  
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Kagura walked through the castle, admiring her flowers. She wandered aimlessly, not even thinking. After a while she happened to walk past the room where Naraku was...  
  
"Whatchya got there?"  
  
"None of your business."  
  
"Kagura...." he said warningly.  
  
"Flowers."  
  
"From who?"  
  
"How should I know?"  
  
"Did he leave you a card?"  
  
"Maybe, maybe not. What's it to you?"  
  
"I want to meet this boy and make sure he's suitable. I'll not have any of my incarnations dating some low class demon."  
  
Kagura rolled her eyes. "Mind your own business," she said as she continued on her path.  
  
"Snot-nosed girl..." Naraku muttered once she had gone.  
  
"Stupid old man..." Kagura muttered once she had gone.  
  
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There ya go!! Another chapter!! I know it's kinda short compared to my other ones, and I'm sorry, but I was sick for a few days and it's kinda hard to type when you're coughing your lungs out. The next update should be the weekend after next.


	14. Memories and meetings

DISCLAIMER: Do I own Inuyasha? Ye- :sees lots of lawyers gather around her: Er....I mean....NO!!

-----Reviews-----

I didn't get to the reviews last time....Sorry!! I'll make up for it this time!!

Starfire77: (chapter 12) Thanks! And it was supposed to be! (chapter 13) Yeah, I guess it was kinda unexpected....I only recently thought of actually making those two a couple!

cherryblosomz: (chapter 12) Thanks! Sorry that I keep saying the same thing, but I gotta say _something_! (chapter 13) lol, that's fine! Yeah, sorry for not making that quite clear...I meant that I was gonna update on the 6th. Anyway, glad ya liked the funniness!(is that even a word? and how do you spell it??) And thanks!

aphtin: (chapter 4) Yay!! You're back!! lol Anyway, that's fine, take your time in reading it! No problem about answering your question, and I'm kinda leaning more towards father-daughter arguments cuz I don't like the Kagura/Naraku pairing....:shudders: Anyway, thanks for your compliments!

-----End Reviews-----

I'm sorry I didn't update this weekend, but my computer completely crashed. Anyway, here ya go!

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Night. Finally.

"Let's sleep here," Kagome said, surveying the clearing they were in.

"No way! We had to stop so many times that you should be plenty rested by now!" Inuyasha complained.

"We only stopped three times," Kagome replied as she continued looking around. Then, paying no heed to Inuyasha's protests, she started building a fire and laying out the sleeping bags. The others helped her, no one paying even the least bit of attention to Inuyasha. Eventually, he gave up and jumped into a tree. Mumbling was occasionally heard from the tree as the others settled down and drifted off to sleep.

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_"Do you think she'll like it?"_

_"Of course!" Naomi(normal outfit) grinned. Her father had made a beautiful necklace of pearls and seashells strung together on a white string that was as strong as it was flexible. The pearls caught the sunlight and distorted it, casting rainbows all over the walls of their small hut. The seashells were white with natural stripes, some of red, some of blue, and some of green. All in all, it was absolutely gorgous, and probably worth a lot of money. Naomi shifted her glance from the necklace to her father. _

_Where had the years gone? His hair was grey instead of the complete black it used to be. His hands were worn with age. The only reminder of his youth was his light brown eyes, which still shone with the same light as they used to._

_"I think there's something missing," he said. He stared at the necklace in concentration for a few minutes, then snapped his fingers in realization. "Naomi, do you think that you could make it invisible?"_

_"Huh?"_

_"Only when the wearer wants it to be," he added. "That way, the animals she hunts won't see it in the night when she's trying to sneak up on them."_

_"I'll try," Naomi said, nodding. Her father passed the necklace to her, and she looked at it. Her eyes went completely black as she started chanting a few words. The necklace began to waver, then completely vanished as Naomi finished her spell. "All done!" She passed the now invisible necklace to her father, and it became visible again immediately._

_"Thank you," he said. "I'm very proud that you can do spells like this."_

_"No problem!" Naomi said cheefully. "Try it out, just in case I did the spell wrong. All you have to do is think that the necklace isn't there, then it should dissapear."_

_Her father closed his eyes, then...._

_POOF_

_Well, there wasn't really a poof, but it seemed like there should've been as the necklace dissapeared. Naomi's father opened his eyes again and smiled._

_"To make it reappear, you have to think that it's there again."_

_Her father nodded, then....._

_POP_

_This time, there really was a popping sound as it reappeared._

_Both of them laughed for a long time._

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"Naomi! Time to get up!" Hikaru said.

"Huh?" Naomi opened her eyes slowly. She instinctively brought a hand to her face to shield out the light, and immediately wished she hadn't.

Yes, the pain was still there. Yes, it was getting worse. Yes, it hurt like hell. Yes, she'd have to put up with it for yet another day.

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_Meet me the day after tomorrow at the waterfall._

Kagura reread the note for the hundredth time, trying to make up her mind about wether to go or not. This boy was charming and kind, but it was also fun while she didn't know who it was. She looked at the new batch of flowers, then back at the note, then at the flowers again. "I suppose I shall."

"Shall what?"

Kagura jumped. She whirled around, coming face to face with Kanna. "Why do you always sneak up on me like that?!" she practically yelled.

"What are you going to do?"

"Oh, um...." Kagura gulped. She turned around, feeling her face get hot. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

"Then why are you blushing?"

"I-I'm not blushing!!"

"Yes you are. And now you are stuttering."

'How can she say all this so calmly?' Kagura slowly turned to face her. "I'm....meeting someone...."

Silence. After a few minutes..... "I will not tell Naraku."

Kagura let out the breath she'd been holding. "Thanks, sis!"

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"Toshiro?"

"Huh?"

"You haven't been acting like yourself today. I hope you know that the day after tomorrow is the day we attack Naomi and Inuyasha."

"What?!" But.....he had somewhere to go tomorrow!!

"Is there a problem?"

"I-I had plans!"

"You'll have to cancel. Or would you rather end up like you friend?"

"No, M'lord. I'll cancel." 'Damn you, Keitaru!!'

"Good."

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Sorry if it was confusing. I'm basically just trying to set up for the final battle, and it's kinda hard. The grand finale will probably come along in chapter 16, 17, or 18. Maybe sooner, maybe later. The next chapter should be up by the 20th. If there are any questions, comments, flames, confusion, randomness, or anything else, just send them to me with the review button. Thank you!


	15. Memories of Mother

DISCLAIMER: STILL don't own Inuyasha. I own a wall poster of Sesshoumaru, though!

-----Reviews-----

cherryblosomz: Sorry, I guess I didn't make it clear enough....She's been getting notes from Toshiro, so he sent her a note that says to met him. So that's where she's going.

Starfire77: Glad you think so!

-----End Reviews-----

I'm not grounded anymore!! HURRAY!!!! lol I'm REALLY sorry for that very long period of no updates....So I'm making up for it! Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/whatever and a happy New Year! If you want presents, check my profile page-thing.

I'm sure you all just want to hurry up and get on with reading the story, so here it is!

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Naomi looked around. She saw her mother, on her knees in pain. She saw Him, raising his sword for the final blow. She felt her father's presence right behind her. She felt his hand clamp over her mouth to keep her from screaming out. She felt all the anger, all the sorrow, and all the guilt that she had felt that day. She knew that it was her fault her mother was to die. If she had never been born, then her mother wouldn't have been hunted down by Him. Her mother wouldn't have had to put up with all the running, all the fighting, all the pain, and everything else that accompanied Naomi's birth. Her birth. The birth of a half demon.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion as the blade was brought down. Closer....Closer.....Closer....

'MOTHER!!!' Naomi's mind screamed. Tears streamed down her face as she watched in horror.

Suddenly, a dark barrier formed around her mother. The sword bounced off, and then it clanged to the ground after falling out of His grip. She got up, her eyes completely black and the barrier around her still. Her voice seemed to echo around as she chanted some words.

He was thrown back by a wave of black energy. As He tried to get up, He was thrown back by another energy wave. This time he stayed down.

Naomi's mother approached him slowly. He remained down until she got right next to Him and her barrier disappeared. Then He opened his eyes and kicked her feet from under her. She fell, surprised, while He got to His feet, grabbing His sword on the way up. In one swift motion He brought it down.....

But she was to fast for Him. She caught it in her hand and broke off the tip. "Have a taste of your own poison!!" she shouted as she stuck him with it. She then jumped away as He fell forward, eyes wide. She landed a few feet away from the dead corpse.

"Mother!" Naomi called, running towards her. Her father was right behind her.

"Naomi....." her mother fell forward onto the ground.

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Naomi awoke breathless. "Mother," she whispered. She fought back the tears. Her mother had died later that day.A mixture of His poison, the injuries He inflicted on her, and exhaustion from the fight is what truly killed her.

Him. The one who her mother had died to kill. The one who had hunted her mother to the tiny hut in the middle of the woods. The one who had come back from the dead. Him.

Keitaru.

"Naomi?"

Naomi looked over at Hikaru and realized that it was night. "Yeah? What is it?" She did a good job of keeping her voice steady.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why are you asking me, anyway?"

"I don't know. It's just that.....You've been acting strange since you fought that guy. Did he do something to you?"

'Should I tell him about the poison.....?' she asked herself. "No. I've just been thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

"If you're sure...."

He went back to sleep. She looked at the stars, lost in thought.

"Naomi?"

Naomi looked at Inuyasha. 'Not again!!' "Yeah? What is it?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why are you asking me, anyway?"

"I don't know. It's just that.....You've been acting strange since you fought that guy. Did he do something to you?"

'Should I tell him about the poison.....?' she asked herself. "No. I've just been thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

"If you're sure...."

He went back to sleep. She looked at the stars, lost in thought.

"Naomi?"

'WHEN WILL THIS STOP?!?!?!" She looked at Shippou. "Nothing's wrong. The guy I fought didn't do anything to me, I've just been thinking. I haven't been thinking about anything, so go back to sleep."

"Can you read minds? You knew all my questions before I even asked them!!"

"I'm a good guesser."

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'Ok, here it goes....Just a little closer....Almost there.....'

"Kagura!" She froze. "Where are you going?"

'Think fast.....' "I'm going to try and steal the shards from Kouga." 'Excellent! Splendid work!!'

"Alright. Do you need any of my demons to go with you?"

"I can handle a puny wolf demon by myself, thank you."

"**Fine**. Go, then." 'Hopefully he'll kill her.....Then all my problems would be solved......'

"**Fine**. I will." She walked out the door, head held high.

She wasn't really going to get the shards from Kouga. Why should she? She was actually going to the waterfall where that charming demon was going to meet her. 'I wonder what he'll be like....?'

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'Dammit! Keitaru is watching me more than ever.....How am I supposed to sneak out to the waterfall now?!'

"Toshiro."

"Yes, M'lord?"

"Go and make sure that all is ready for the ambush on Naomi and Inuyasha. That **is** today, if you remember."

"Of course, M'lord." Toshiro walked out of the cave calmly, but inside he was jumping for joy. 'I couldn't have **asked** for a better excuse to get out!! Now I can meet Lady Kagura, and he'll have no idea!! Perfect, perfect, perfect, **PERFECT**!!!!'

"On second thought, I think I'll come with you."

'NO!!!!!!!'

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It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping; everything was perfectly calm and peaceful. Everyone in the Inuyasha group was walking happily without a care in the world.

Well, everyone except for Naomi, that is. Her mind was stuck on the day that her mother died. She was rewatching the scene over and over again in her mind, wondering how on earth Keitaru had come back. It seemed impossible to her, yet it was true. He had come back.

She soon gave up on trying to find the answer. She just enjoyed the scenery as much as a person can when their **arm** feels like it's about to **explode**.

"Inuyasha, I sense a jewel shard!" Kagome said, stopping suddenly.

"What?! Where?!" Inuyasha drew his sword, looking around.

"Up here!!" a voice called from above.

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Hehehe....Evil, huh? Well, you don't have to worry, because the next chapter's already here. In it, you shall see who attacked the group and the two demons that show up. (besides Keitaru and Toshiro...) **Review please!**


	16. Fighting Toshiro and Keitaru

DISCLAIMER: Geez, how many times do I have to say it?! I DON'T OWN INUYASHA!!! Just my cute Sesshy poster...(cuddles with Sesshy poster)

Chapter 16 is up and running! And it's actually longer than usual! REJOICEMENT!!! lol Enjoy!

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"Where is he?" Kagura wondered aloud, looking around. "Maybe he'll come a bit later......" She sat on a rock and sighed. If she had been paying attention, she would've seen how beautiful the waterfall was. The water, as it fell from the high cliff, glittered in the midday sunlight and made a rainbow with beautiful colors.

"Maybe later....." she repeated, sighing again.

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Inuyasha and the others looked up to see Toshiro jumping from a tree and landing on the path before them. He held up a few throwing stars, ready to throw them.

"Who the hell are you?!" Inuyasha shouted, drawing Tetsuiga.

Toshiro smirked. "Why don't you ask Naomi?"

Everyone turned to Naomi, who was staring at him in horror. No one knew what she knew. They had no idea about any of it. All they knew was that this guy and Naomi knew each other. They didn't know that Keitaru was likely lurking around, waiting for his chance to strike. They didn't know that Toshiro was simply a distraction for them. They didn't know that Naomi's arm was hurting worse than ever before.

"Well, whoever you are," Inuyasha said, turning back towards him. "You're goin' down!!" He ran at Toshiro, raising his sword to strike.

"If you can catch me!" he replied as he ran off into the woods.

"Why you...Get back here!!" Inuyasha ran after him, and everyone else followed.

All except Naomi, that is. She slumped against the cliff, clutching her arm. 'He knows I'm too weak to fight him,' she thought. 'So why doesn't he just hurry up and come out already?!'

Suddenly, blackness settled around her. It was a cold, silent darkness that sent shivers running down her spine. Pain, anger, annoyance all emotions were replaced by a single one......

Fear.

She shivered uncontrollably. She stood against the cliff and looked around frantically. There had to be light somewhere! Anything would do! **Anything**!!

She almost sighed in relief when she saw two red eyes. At least it was something besides the darkness. The sigh caught in her throat as a figure appeared around the eyes. The figure was, somehow, darker than the blackness around it. A dark cape covering its wearer's body, and a dark hood to cover the face. No other features could be seen, yet no more were even need. Naomi knew who it was. And I'm sure that you do too.

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"You coward! Stop running!"

"That's a fine idea." Toshiro stopped immediately and turned around to face Inuyasha again, throwing stars already in hand.

They hadn't gone very far from Naomi. In fact, as they all stopped and got ready to attack, they found that a darkness barrier was just being put up and that it was right behind them. Inuyasha turned, but it was already too late. "Dammit! We were tricked!!"

"Too late to do anything about it!" Toshiro called as he threw his weapons. Inuyasha dodged just in time.

**Round 1, Toshiro vs. Inuyasha**

**FIGHT!!!**

"Wind Scar!!" Inuyasha yelled, using – What do ya know? – the Wind Scar.

Toshiro dodged easily. "Throwing Stars!" (Hey, everyone's gotta announce their attacks in matches like these.....)

Inuyasha dodged. "Regular Attack!" (Maybe this is a bit overboard......)

"Dodge!" (Ok, this is DEFINITELY overboard! But hey, I'm lazy, so deal with it.)

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"Naomi," the figure said. Its voice frightened her more than the darkness had. It walked towards her slowly, laughing a low chuckle.

Suddenly, the fear was pushed aside and all her other emotions came rushing back. "You!" she spat. Her eyes were filled with hatred and anger. She drew her sword, ignoring the pain in her arm.

Keitaru simply laughed. "You fool! You can hardly lift that sword!"

Suddenly, another spasm of pain went through her arm and she dropped to her knees, her sword lying forgotten on the ground. The pain was so intense....She felt like she was going to die. If she did, then at least she wouldn't have to feel the pain anymore....

Keitaru laughed once more. "You will die, just your pathetic mother!"

'NO! I can't die! Not like this!' her mind screamed. 'I have to get up and defeat him! For mother....' She grabbed her sword and leaned on it while she got up, trying her best to forget the pain.

Keitaru simply watched her with amusement. Did nothing faze this guy? "You are stronger than I thought," he said. "But you are still no match for me!"

There they stood – two black clad figures hardly visible in the darkness that engulfed them.

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"Wind Scar!"

"Dodge! Throwing Stars!"

"Block!"

"Throwing Stars! Throwing Stars! Throwing Stars!"

"Dodge! Doge! Get Hit! Collapse From Exhaustion....."

The winner is...Toshiro!

"Inuyasha!" Kagome ran to him and knelt beside him.

"I'm fine....just tired...that's all....Miroku, you take over....."

"Got it!"

**Round 2, Miroku vs. Toshiro**

**FIGHT!!!**

(Don't worry, I'll stop making them yell out their attacks now....)

Miroku started to unwrap his rosary.

"You don't want to suck up the jewel shard, do you?" Toshiro asked, holding it up for him to see.

Miroku re-wrapped his rosary, cursing. "Well, I'm of no use, so Sango will have to take over."

(Wow...round 2 was pretty short...)

**Round 3, Sango vs. Toshiro**

**FIGHT!!!**

"Hiraikotsu!" Sango shouted, throwing her boomerang. (Hey, I'm not starting that again, it's just what she does! Really! If you watch the anime, she usually shouts "Hiraikotsu" whenever she throws that huge boomerang of hers! That's because "Hiraikotsu" is the name of that boomerang!! Don't believe me? Well, it's-Oh, you just want me to continue with the story, don't ya? Ok, fine....)

Toshiro dodged and threw his stars. (I'm gonna call them stars now, ok? Typing "throwing stars" every time is making my hand hurt....)

Sango blocked them with Hiraikotsu once it returned to her. Then she threw it again.

(Ok, let's fast-forward for a few minutes.....Sango gets exhausted and hurt, Kagome uses up all her arrows and gets exhausted, Miroku uses his staff but also gets hurt, Kilala tries to fight but gets hurt, even Hikaru takes his chances but winds up losing, then Shippou walks up shaking like a leaf, Toshiro says - Wait, back up, there we go. Shippou's walking up to Toshiro.)

**Round 7, Shippou vs. Toshiro**

**FIGHT!!!**

Shippou looked around, looking for anyone who could take his place, but everyone was either hurt or exhausted. So, it was up to him. He had to be brave for the others. He had to stand up to this Toshiro guy and fight. He had to be the strongest and defeat his fellow fox demon. He faced Toshiro, confidence and strength in his eyes.

"I have to fight this little runt?" Toshiro asked, crossing his arms with a smirk on his face. "This'll be easy." With a single sweep of his hand, he threw about five or so stars at Shippou, all of which just barely missed.

Shippou squeaked. Brave? Strong? Fight? Yeah right! The poor kid just cowered against a tree, waiting for the final blow to come.

But it didn't. There were two reasons for this, one of which you'll learn now, and one of which you'll learn when you find out about Toshiro's past.

"Kagome!" a voice called.

Everyone looked over, and most were glad to see him. Except for Inuyasha and Toshiro, that is. They were both annoyed.

"Kouga!" Kagome called. Maybe he could help them beat Toshiro!

He ran over to, squatting beside her. "Are you ok?! That flea thing told me you were hurt! Was he lying? You don't look hurt....but I could be wrong! Tell me, has Mutt-Face been taking care of you right? If he let anything happen to you, I swear he'll die! Are-"

"I'm fine!" Kagome said, surprised. "Did you say that a flea told you I was hurt?"

"Myouga!" Inuyasha growled. "Where the hell is he?!"

"R-Right here, Lord Inuyasha!" said a voice from Kilala's fur. He had jumped there from Kouga just a few minutes ago.

Inuyasha dug in Kilala's fur for only a few seconds before he pulled out a certain flea who was in a lot of trouble.

"And **why **did you tell him that Kagome was hurt?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Well, that was the only way I could think of to bring him here," he replied.

"Why?"

"Because he wouldn't come when I mentioned Naomi."

"But why did you even ask him to come?!"

"Because when I simply mentioned Naomi to Lord Sesshoumaru, he squished me and got Jaken to burn me with that staff of his."

"Why did you ask **anyone** to come?!"

"Because I know you need help to rescue Naomi."

Inuyasha sighed. "Fine, whatever." He turned to Kouga. "So you're gonna help rescue Naomi, huh?"

"Who?" Kouga raised an eyebrow. "I don't care about this Naomi girl! I just came to make sure that Kagome was alright!"

"I'm fine," Kagome said. "Could you please help us? Naomi's one of my friends, and I'll be grateful to anyone who can help us save her!"

Kouga looked at her pleading face and answered immediately. "Anything for you. What should I do?"

Kagome smiled. "Great! We just need you to help us defeat Toshiro!"

Kouga turned to Toshiro and cracked his knuckles. "Easy."

"Oh no you don't!" Inuyasha said, stepping in front of him. "I'm gonna beat him!"

"Kagome told me to!" Kouga protested, getting back in front.

Kagome sighed. "Why don't you two just work together?" she suggested.

Inuyasha and Kouga, getting ready to fight, stopped and looked at her. Then they switched their glances to look at each other. Then they both crossed their arms and looked away from each other. "**Fine**!"

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Keitaru watched Naomi fight the illusion of him. He laughed a deep, rumbling laugh. He was really on top of the cliff, outside his own darkness barrier. He could see through it only because he could do those kinds of things. To anyone else, it was an impenetrable fortress of darkness that could not be seen through.

Below, Naomi was struggling with that simple copy. She could hardly hold her sword up, and she was trying to use it to slice him. The copy dodged, jumped, ran, whatever it needed to stay away. The fight was clearly one-sided, and it was clear who was going to win.

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"He'll come....He'll come....He'll come....He'll come...." Kagura paced up and down the stream, still waiting. The sun was moving across the sky, and she was getting worried. She kept reassuring herself that he'd come, but she still wasn't so sure.

She sat down on the rock again and tried skipping pebbles to pass the time. "He'll come...."

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So we have Kouga and the Inuyasha group fighting Toshiro, and Naomi fighting Keitaru. Or so she thinks....Evil Keitaru!! lol Time for the next chapter!In it, we learn of Toshiro's past and someone's surprising power. **Review please!**


	17. Shina

DISCLAIMER: Nope. Don't own it. Deal with it.

Hullo again! Here's the next chapter of a true story about Naomi Starcloud. Enjoy reading about me! J/k! But I do want you to enjoy....

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"_You know what? I'm gonna become a ninja....."_

"_A ninja? That's stupid."_

"_What about you? What're you gonna be?"_

"_Nothing. I'm just gonna just travel around, killing whoever pisses me off."_

"_You're such an idiot, Toshiro!"_

_Two small fox demons sat near a beautiful waterfall; one a girl, one a boy. The water was glistening in the little light that the crescent moon gave off. One fox demon we all know; Toshiro. Only, he was younger, about 10 years old or so, and he was wearing some regular village clothes. The other had emerald green eyes, reddish hair, and a huge, light-colored, puffy tail(she looks sort of like Shippou!). She, too, was wearing village clothes._

_Toshiro smirked and leaned on the rock that was behind him. "Yeah, I know," he responded._

"_I've got an idea...."_

_Toshiro glanced at her. "Oh no, not an idea!" he said sarcastically. "What is it, Shina?"_

"_We can both become ninjas!" she said, grinning. "It'll be great! We can have the same teachers and everything! And we'll be together forever!"_

"_Whatever," he said nonchalantly. Shina didn't see his smile, hidden by the darkness._

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Toshiro stood in front of Shippou(yes, we went back a little in time, but deal with it). The poor kid was cowering against the tree, waiting for the final blow. Toshiro held his hand up, ready to throw his star......

But the memory of her stopped him. They looked so much alike that it was scary. He could almost imagine her scolding glares, her loving smiles, her beautiful face; everything about her.

But if he didn't kill this runt, Keitaru would kill **him**. He was torn between the two choices. Luckily for him, he didn't quite have to worry about that as a certain annoying wolf demon came running up. While he and the others were talking, Toshiro was remembering more of his past.

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_Shina and Toshiro faced each other, ready to fight. Shina had her throwing knives and Toshiro had his throwing stars. They were about 30 now, but they both looked ten years younger. They both were wearing ninja clothes, the sign of the profession they chose to take up._

_Shina started the fight, throwing a few of her knives. Toshiro dodged them all in a series of wonderful acrobatics that were specifically to impress her. She smiled inside, but her face showed no emotion as she caught all of Toshiro's stars, throwing them right back with style and grace that no other rivaled._

_After a while of fighting, Shina had finally managed to back Toshiro against a tree. Smirking, she threw her knives and pinned him to the tree. "I win, old friend."_

_Toshiro sighed. "Oh well.....Maybe next time....." They both looked at each other and burst out laughing. Shina retrieved her knives from the tree and from everywhere else they were, and Toshiro retrieved his stars._

_Toshiro admired Shina. She was beautiful, smart, strong, graceful, kind – the list could go on forever. He loved her; there was no doubt about it. She loved him too, for all his faults and quirks. They might've lived together and been happy, if something had not happened....._

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Toshiro snapped out of his thoughts as Inuyasha and Kouga's conversation came to an end. "**Fine!**" they both said, turning away from each other.

He rolled his eyes and put Shina out of his mind for the time being. He held up his trade-mark stars. "So, when am I actually gonna get a real fight?" he asked mockingly.

"Shut up!" the two feuding males shouted at the same time. They glared at each other before running towards the fox demon before them. Both were without weapons; Kouga because he doesn't like using weapons, Inuyasha because he wasn't about to be outdone by a low-life wolf.

Kouga kicked just as Inuyasha punched. Toshiro dodged both attacks, grinning smugly. Kouga and Inuyasha glared at each other once more, both blaming the other for missing him.

"Stay outta my way if you can't hit him!" Inuyasha yelled.

"I don't see you making any marks!" Kouga yelled back.

Kagome's plan wasn't going too well.....

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Naraku sat in his room. That's it. He simply sat there. He wasn't doing anything, just sitting. Sitting. Sitting. Sitting.

He got bored.

"**99 BOTTLES OF SAKE ON THE WALL!! 99 BOTTLES OF SAKE!! YOU TAKE ONE DOWN, YOU PASS IT AROUND, 98 BOTTLES OF SAKE ON THE WALL!!**"

I'm sad to say that this is what anyone in or around Naraku's castle had to listen to. They all let out a cheer when he finally got down to one.

"**1 BOTTLE OF SAKE ON THE WALL!! 1 BOTTLE OF SAKE!! YOU TAKE IT DOWN, YOU PASS IT AROUND, YOU TEAR DOWN THE WALL......999 BOTTLES OF SAKE ON THE WALL!!**"

A groan came from the unwanting audience. Would it never end?!

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Somehow, Inuyasha and Kouga had managed to get Toshiro to his knees. No one was quite sure how it happened or who actually did it, but they all agreed on one thing: They didn't care how.

Toshiro was on all fours on the ground, panting. He was completely exhausted. Fighting them had somehow drained him of his energy. He had gotten hurt and was bleeding, but he had no idea how it happened. His stars had all been used up too, so he had no hopes of trying to trick them.

Inuyasha and Kouga stood above him, cracking their knuckles. "Should we kill him now, or should we wait?" Inuyasha asked, glaring down at him.

"I say we kill him now," Kouga replied.

This was another thing that puzzled everyone. Inuyasha and Kouga? Working together? No way! But it'd true, they were. They had no idea when it had happened, but it did, and they had brought Toshiro to the ground and were discussing how they should kill him, each actually **agreeing** on some things!

"But first, I want some questions answered," Inuyasha said, grabbing Toshiro's shirt collar and pulling him up so they were eye-level. "First, what did you do to Naomi?!"

"I gave her a gift from Lord Keitaru." He refused to say more, even when Inuyasha threatened him. He knew that Inuyasha wouldn't kill him until the rest of the questions were answered.

"Who the hell is Keitaru?!"

"A demon who wishes to kill Naomi."

"Why are you working for him?!"

Toshiro was silent for a few moments. Inuyasha repeated the question, and at long last Toshiro answered. "I have no choice."

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_Shina looked at Toshiro. They were standing at the waterfall, just like old times. They were both over 100 years old now, yet they still looked just 20. Toshiro looked back at her._

_Her features were delicate in the moonlight. Her hair was blowing freely in the wind, whipping around her perfect face. Her eyes sparkled like jewels, a sign that she was delighted._

_As she looked at him, she saw a guy whom was perfect beyond measure. His clear blue eyes matched the ocean's blue waves, and in them she saw all the wisdom, foolishness, strength, weakness, happiness, and sadness that made up him._

_Toshiro was about to start speaking when something came from the bushes. It looked like a person, yet it had no shape. It was made up purely of shadows and what looked like black liquid. It seemed to waver into and out of sight, as if it couldn't make up its mine about whether to appear or disappear. _

_The weird thing was that Toshiro thought it was looking at him. The gaze of whatever this thing was made his blood run cold and sent shivers down his spine. Suddenly, without warning, the thing seemed to break up and....spread. The shadows it was composed of separated, and then started to grow larger, until they completely engulfed everything._

_Toshiro could see nothing. He could hear the muffled scream of someone. With a jolt of fear, he realized that it was Shina. He ran towards the sound, but only came face-to-face with a dark figure. I need not describe him, for just telling you his name will suffice._

_Keitaru._

_He reached out for Toshiro, but he simply swatted his hand away. "What have you done to her?!" he shouted. "What have you done to Shina?!" At this time, Toshiro knew nothing of Keitaru. This was the first time he'd ever seen him in his life._

_Keitaru simply laughed and reached out again. Toshiro grabbed one of his stars and stuck it in the hated demon's heart, then watched as he fell to the ground. The darkness dispersed, and what Toshiro saw before him made him cry out._

_Lying before him was not the great sorcerer Keitaru, but the fox demon Shina. He dropped to his knees, staring in horror. "What....What have I done?!"_

_Shina pulled herself over to him and laid her head in his lap. "Toshiro," she whispered, her voice growing weak. "It wasn't your fault. You were under a spell. I could sense it."_

"_It **is** my fault," he said. "I shouldn't have fallen for it! I was being stupid!"_

_She reached a hand up and brushed away a single fallen tear. "Don't you dare cry," she whispered. "I want to see a happy face before I go. So cheer up, ok?" She gave him a weak smile._

_Toshiro wiped his eyes quickly with his sleeve. He smiled back, determined to give her this one last wish. She closed her eyes, still smiling. Soon, though, the smile disappeared, the color drained, and he realized that she was lost to him._

_A figure came from the trees. Toshiro looked up and saw him. He gently put Shina on the ground and stood up. He faced Keitaru with hatred and anger in those clear blue eyes of his. He ran at him, grabbing his throwing stars._

"_You!" he spat, throwing one at Keitaru while still running. Keitaru dodged easily. "You are the one I saw! You are the one I thought I killed! You are the one who set up this trap! You are the one who killed her!"_

"_I didn't kill her," he replied, smirking under his hood. "You killed her."_

"_You tricked me!!" Toshiro yelled. He was close enough to stick a star into Keitaru, which he did with pleasure. Right in the heart. Right where it would kill him._

_But it didn't._

_Toshiro watchedwith horror as Keitaru grabbed the star and took it out, still smirking. Then he used it to cut Toshiro's arm down the side, making a scar that ran from the elbow to the wrist. He thendisappeared. His voice lingered, however, and Toshiro heard him._

"_I will let you live for now," the voice said. "However, there is a price. If I ever have need of you, I shall call you and you shall come willingly."_

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Poor Toshiro...Poor Shina....But you know what? Due to this, a few other things happen that will play a big part in ending this thing. You'll just have to read the next chapter to find out! In it, we learn of someone who has a special power and something happens with Keitaru. **Review please!**


	18. A Surprising Power, a Backstabber, and a...

DISCLAIMER: This is the 18th time in this story that I've had to tell you that I don't own Inuyasha! Understand? GOOD!!

Another chapter. Woo. -----(note the lack of enthusiasm, lol)

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Keitaru came back many years later. He had tricked Toshiro before he'd ever met Naomi and her mother, so it was a few centuries later that he called upon him to help defeat Naomi. Toshiro had, of course, obeyed, but with every intention of back-stabbing him when he got the chance.

Toshiro looked Inuyasha in the eye. "I have no choice. If I do not help him, he will kill me."

The two stared down each other for what seemed like hours, Inuyasha still gripping the front of Toshiro's shirt. It was only minutes, however, before Inuyasha spoke.

"You hate him."

"You do not know that."

"I can see it in your eyes."

They stared down each other yet again. This time it was Toshiro who spoke.

"Yes, I hate him. But I still have no choice."

"Yeah you do. You can choose to help us kill him."

"If we fail, he'll kill us. You understand that, don't you?"

"Then I guess we better not fail."

And thus the silent agreement was made. Toshiro would help them kill Keitaru and save Naomi. Inuyasha lowered him back to the ground and let go of his shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Kouga yelled. "This could be a trap, you idiot! How do we know he's really on our side?! How do you know that he's not just acting?!"

Kagome placed a hand on Kouga's arm. "Just trust him," she said softly. One look at her face was all he needed to calm down and trust Toshiro.

"So, what do we do?" Sango asked, walking over to them. "Is there some way we can get into that barrier?"

Toshiro looked around. 'We need Shina,' he thought. His eyes fell on Shippou, who had jumped onto Kagome's shoulder. "Hey, kid."

"M-Me?" Shippou squeaked. He had not forgotten the earlier attempt on his life.

"Yeah," Toshiro said. "Cast your Fox Fire at the barrier."

Shippou looked at Kagome, wondering whether he should listen or not. Kagome gave a slight nod, and Shippou hopped off her shoulder and scurried over to the barrier. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to cast the spell. He concentrated, building up his energy. "Fox Fire!" he shouted. The spell hit the barrier....

....And bounced off.

Toshiro sighed. So, he **was** too young to have enough power. Then he got an idea. "Concentrate on the person you hate the most," he said. "And imagine that the barrier is that person."

Shippou looked at him, a little surprised. Then he looked back at the barrier and built up his energy again. "**Fox Fire!**" he shouted again, casting the spell once more. This time it was stronger, and a hole appeared in the barrier.

"Wow, Shippou!" Kagome exclaimed. "That was pretty powerful!"

"I'm curious," Miroku put in. "Who were you thinking of?"

"Uh...." Shippou looked around nervously, knowing that his answer would get him into trouble. "Inuyasha."

"WHAT?!?!"

"Now's not the time," Toshiro said, stopping Inuyasha from launching himself at Shippou. "We need someone to go in there and find her."

"I'm going," Inuyasha said with certainty. "She's my friend, and I have to save her. Plus I'm the strongest one here."

He earned two glares and two whacks on the head from two demons.

"Wolves like me are a lot more powerful than pathetic dogs!" Kouga exclaimed. "Especially half breeds!"

"And foxes are definitely the dominant species," Toshiro added.

"I'm going too," Hikaru interrupted, the first time he'd talked in a while. "She saved me, and now it's time to return the favor."

"Well, you better hurry up and go!" Sango exclaimed, looking at the quickly closing hole. Inuyasha and Hikaru looked at each other and nodded before running through the hole, Inuyasha leading with Hikaru following.

Once they had gone and the hole disappeared, Miroku turned to Toshiro. "How did you know that Shippou would be able to break the barrier?" he asked.

"Shina had the power to break barriers," Toshiro said. The others couldn't miss the sad note in his voice. "And it appears that this young fox demon is her reincarnation."

'Shina?' Kagome thought. She stared at his downcast face. 'Could he have loved her?'

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Hikaru stepped inside the barrier and immediately froze. The darkness was stifling. It pressed in around him, and he felt as though he would never see the light again. He felt as Naomi had; only his feelings were multiplied ten times over.

Inuyasha stopped when he realized that his companion wasn't following him anymore. He looked over and saw the poor guy just standing there, looking like a pale statue. "Snap out of it," Inuyasha growled, grabbing his arm. He felt the fear too, but he wasn't about to show it. "Come on, we have to get Naomi outta here!"

Hikaru came out of his trance and looked at Inuyasha. "Sorry," he muttered, then followed again as Inuyasha ran through the darkness. He would have to stay strong, for her sake.

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"I'll have to go back to Keitaru and tell him that you are dead," Toshiro said.

"But isn't he fighting Naomi?" Shippou questioned.

Toshiro shook his head. "He's probably cast an illusion spell to make a copy of himself," he answered. "That's who Naomi is fighting."

"Is he that powerful?" Miroku asked, amazed.

"I'm afraid so," Toshiro said grimly. "He's so powerful that he can hide his scent. I don't even know what kind of demon he is! He could be a rabbit for all I know!"

"Wow...I've never even heard of a demon like that!" Sango exclaimed.

"And now I have to go," Toshiro said. "If I don't do something to keep his eyes away from the barrier, he'll find Inuyasha and Hikaru." Without another word he disappeared right before their very eyes.

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Keitaru felt a disturbance in his barrier. It was a small one, though, and he was sure that Toshiro could take care of it once he got back from killing those weaklings. Speaking of which...

Toshiro appeared on the cliff. "M'lord," he greeted Keitaru, bowing as always.

"Are they dead?" he asked.

"Of course. They were weak and defeated easily."

"Good," Keitaru said. He'd kept his eyes on the fight below the entire time, and Toshiro knew that he needed to concentrate to keep up the illusion. "Now, go do something about the disturbance in the barrier I felt a few minutes ago."

Toshiro stayed where he was. He said he'd distract him, and so he would. "It was probably just a stray demon trying to get in," he said casually. "Most likely nothing to worry about."

Keitaru would have glared at him if he did not need to concentrate. "I still want you to do something about it," he growled. "It feels like something came in, and I don't want any disturbances."

"I still think that it is nothing to worry about," Toshiro insisted. He would have to distract Keitaru from Naomi long enough for Inuyasha to help her, then get up there and defeat him. "I'll bet it's just a simple bird that got lucky and flew through a weak spot."

"I suppose you're right."

'Eh?' This was unexpected. Toshiro thought that Keitaru would have continued arguing, eventually turning to him and looking away from Naomi. It looks like the plan failed.

"I suppose I don't have to worry since that weak half demon is dead," Keitaru said calmly. "Unless, of course, he really weren't dead..."

Toshiro was frozen for an instant with dread. Did he know? Was it possible that he'd found out about the betrayal? Could it be that he was trying to get Toshiro to confess? No. Impossible. He couldn't know. "Of course he's dead," Toshiro responded. "Do you doubt my strength?"

"No, only your loyalty."

He did know. There was only one way to end this. Without thinking, Toshiro grabbed his only available weapon. His sword plunged into Keitaru's back and came through the other side.

The latter's shoulders shook. Toshiro took a step back, letting go of the sword and having no clue of what was going on. He had no idea whether he should flee in alarm or laugh in triumph. What did this mean? He didn't know, but he would soon find out.

Keitaru's shoulders shook more violently. Then he threw his head back, letting out howls of laughter. He turned on Toshiro, still chuckling. He grabbed the blade of the sword from behind and pulled it out. The gaping hole that the sword had made quickly disappeared, leaving not even torn cloth.

"Impossible," Toshiro gasped, the panic clearly showing in his eyes.

The mission had failed.

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Naomi thrust her sword violently. Keitaru merely dodged. "Damn you!" she spat, panting.

He only laughed. "You foolish half breed!" he said. "You truly thought you could defeat me? Me, the one who not even your mother could kill without dying as well?"

"Damn you!" she repeated. Then something happened. As she watched, the figure of him wavered and shimmered. His laughing voice was still heard, but that was fading along with his body. Cautiously, Naomi walked over to him and put a hand threw him as if he were water. She stumbled backwards a little in shock, then anger formed again.

"He tricked me," she growled. "That bastard tricked me! That was just an illusion!" She looked up at the top of the barrier. She could neither see nor hear anything from up there. "**COME AND FIGHT ME!!!!**" she yelled at the top of her lungs, her anger and hatred coming out in full force. She punched the side of the cliff with all her might, creating a crater that went all the way to the top of the cliff.

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Well, this certainly is setting the stage up for the final fight! Which is, coincidentally, the name of the next chapter! I'm sure you can pretty much guess what's going to happen....**Review please!**


	19. The Final Fight

DISCLAIMER: All Inuyasha characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, whom I have done a report on. She is a wonderful woman who definitely has and deserves the rights of all these characters except for my own, personal, made-up characters. Thank you.

-----Reviews-----

No reviews......how sad....

-----End Reviews-----

Chapter 19: The Final Fight

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"That was Naomi!" Hikaru said, stopping. Inuyasha, ahead of him, stopped too. They both looked around, trying to decide which way her voice had come from.

"This way," Inuyasha said, starting to run off towards the left.

"No!" Hikaru protested. Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks and looked back at him, wondering what on earth he could be thinking. "Let's....keep going straight...."

The two looked at each other for a long moment. Inuyasha was confused, but as he stared and Hikaru's confident face, he soon realized what was going on. 'Those two have some kind of link,' he thought. 'He'll always be able to find her, no matter what.' He nodded his head. "You lead."

Hikaru was a bit taken aback, but he nodded his head too and started running. He wasn't sure at all how he knew, but he somehow felt it in his bones. She was somewhere in this blackness, and he was going to find her.

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"You are as foolish as that half breed down there," Keitaru chuckled out. "You truly believe that you can kill me? Me, of all people? You should've at least waited until you were stronger. Or until you found a full blooded, powerful demon to aid you. Even then you wouldn't have stood a chance, but it would've been better than this."

Toshiro took a step back. This was impossible! How could this be?! What could defeat a demon so powerful?! "H-How?"

Keitaru laughed. "How? After all that you've seen me do, you ask how? I have created darkness barriers, poisons, and illusions. I have twisted and contorted shadows to my own will and have thus created my weapons. I am able to hide my own scent and to keep my energy from being sensed. And yet, after all this, you ask me how I can heal a simple cut?" He advanced towards the frightened fox demon. "I have many other powers, stronger and more horrible than any you could ever imagine. The darkness belongs to me and it obeys my every command. If I simply think of something, it will know. For instance, perhaps I am thinking of a sword forged from shadows with the deadliest of poisons on its tip....." A horribly black sword appeared in his hand. He swept this sword across Toshiro's chest. At the very instance, a tremble from the mountain almost threw Keitaru off balance and a great crack appeared. Toshiro, though still recovering from his wound, had one last plan to defeat this horrid demon. While Keitaru was regaining balance, Toshiro threw his body against him and sent him into the darkness of his own pit.

Toshiro landed roughly on the edge of the cliff. He put his hand to the deep wound, which darkness was seeping out of. He had no regrets, save one.

He never got to tell either of the women he loved good bye.

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Naomi slid to the ground in hopeless despair. This demon had simply been making a fool of her! He was toying with her, playing around. He could kill her whenever he wished. He was stronger, faster, and had her in the palm of his hand, just as he always had. She was at his mercy. As long as she put up a fight, he would keep her alive. As long as she played his game, she would survive.

It disgusted her. She was his puppet! He was pulling the strings here, just as he always had. He'd planned this entire thing from the beginning. Ever since he'd been "killed" by her mother, he'd been planning this. Planning the destruction of her. Planning the destruction of her friends. Probably even planning the destruction of everyone except for the "most pure demons".

Damn him.

Just as she was about to get up and try to find her way out again, a dark figured literally dropped in. This figure landed gracefully on its feet as if it had simply jumped from the cliff instead of having been pushed from it. It rose and turned to face Naomi, its red eyes gleaming.

"Are you really Keitaru?" Naomi asked hesitantly. She did not want to be tricked again. It was bad enough to be playing by his rules, but to be tricked with the same trick was just too much.

Quick as a flash, Keitaru ran up to her and stuck his claws through her stomach. "What do you think?" he snarled maliciously. He jumped away as she lurched forward, clutching her stomach with one hand while trying to keep her balance with the other.

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Kagome glanced at the setting sun. She and everyone else were getting very worried. What was going on in there? Were Inuyasha and Hikaru near Naomi? And what was happening to her? Were they alright? Were any of them at all alright?

"Say, Shippou," Kagome said. "Do you think....Do you think that you could make another hole in the barrier?"

"I'm not sure...." he said uneasily. "But I guess I can try...."

"Then do it, runt!" Kouga growled. "My woman's probably getting worried about her friend, Naomi."

Shippou took a deep breath and walked over to the barrier. He collected his energy and focused on who he hated most. This time, it wasn't Inuyasha, though. Inuyasha wasn't there currently to tease him or make fun of him or be mean to him. "Fox Fire!" he shouted. The blue fox fire hit the barrier, and made a larger hole than before.

"That one was even more powerful!" Sango exclaimed. "Were you still thinking of Inuyasha, or of someone else?"

"Uh....well....." He looked around uneasily. "Kouga....."

"What?! Why the hell did you think of me?!"

"You've been mean to me since Inuyasha went in!"

Kagome sighed. "It doesn't matter right now," she said. "What matters is that we have to get in there!" She went in, followed by the rest of the gang. The second she got in, though, she turned a sickly shade of pale and closed her eyes. So did Sango and Miroku. The others were fine, though.

"Kagome?" Kouga asked. He got no response. "Kagome?!"

Kilala mewed and pawed at the bottom of Sango's skirt while Shippou hopped onto Miroku's shoulder and started tugging at his hair.

Nothing they did got any response.

"I'm afraid that humans cannot survive in here," a very tiny voice from Kilala's fur said. "We must hurry and get them out before they become paralyzed forever!"

Kouga nodded and grabbed Kagome's hand, which was very cold. He tried to drag her out, but she wouldn't move. The gap was closing, and he needed to do something - fast! He picked her up and put her on his back before running out. Kilala transformed into her larger version and dragged out Sango and Miroku by the backs of their shirts.

Once all were out and the gap was closed, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku snapped out of it. "What just....happened?" Kagome asked weakly, shivering in uncontrollable fear. "The last thing I remember is running into the barrier, and then....fear....." This sent a violent shiver down her spine.

"Me too...." Sango said, hugging herself to try and stop shaking.

"Same here...." Even the always smiling Miroku was just sitting and staring with eyes wide in terror.

Everyone looked to Myouga for an explanation, who had jumped from Kilala's fur onto a rock and had just cleared his throat. "You see, this barrier is very unique," he said. "I've never really seen anything quite like it. It puts fear into people who normally are never afraid. Even Sesshoumaru would be afraid. The humans who enter it, however, are consumed by their fear and it completely takes over them. They are paralyzed by fear and turn extremely pale. The only way to keep them from staying paralyzed forever is to get them out within the first few minutes in which they enter. Demons and half demons are also affected, but on a much lesser level."

"But what about that other guy?" Kouga asked. "You know, Hifarfu or something."

"Hikaru," Shippou corrected him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," Kouga replied. "Anyway, what about him? Wouldn't he be experiencing the same thing?"

"I'm not quite sure," Myouga said after a few minutes had passed. "I have a feeling that he may be different...."

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Naomi and Keitaru fought for a long time. Exactly how long, no one was sure. But one thing was for certain – Keitaru was simply toying with her. He was still pulling the strings. He dodged and faked an attempt to strike her, which she dodged. As their fight went on and this became more and more transparent, Naomi only got angrier and angrier.

"Fight me with your true power!" she shouted loudly over the clang of their swords.

"If I did that," he said mockingly, "then this would all be too boring for me. Killing too quickly is a mistake made only by those who don't have a good sense of humor."

"You disgusting beast!" she shouted as she charged at him. "I hope you rot in hell!"

"Such a big mouth for someone so weak."

He pushed her back with black energy by a simple, careless wave of his hand. "But you are getting quite boring," he said a little sadly. "So I suppose I must end this battle so I can continue on with my life of killing." He raised his sword high above his head, ready to bring it down in a flash. "Any last words?"

A question was already in her mind. In was the question that had haunted her nightmares. The question that she asked over and over with no answer. The question that she couldn't die without knowing the answer to. "How have you come back from the dead?"

"Figured as much," Keitaru said. "I knew you'd ask that question sooner or later. Do you remember this?" he asked, bringing out the necklace that Naomi knew only too well. "You see, this is the necklace your father gave to your mother. The one you enchanted, remember? Well, the shells and pearls that your father used to create it had been enchanted by a sorceress. Whoever has this necklace will become immortal. If they are near death, the necklace will react to keep them alive. Even if one were about to die of a natural death, like old age or sickness, the necklace would not let them."

"But....how did you get it?"

"That was simple, really. The first time I ever met your mother was in a broad meadow, far from any towns. She had been hunting and had decided to go there to relax. I was passing by and happened to notice her. Your mother, as you probably already know, was hated by many demons for giving birth to the filthy half breed that is on the ground right in front of me. And so I felt that it was my duty to rid the world of one other horrible addition. I approached her and we fought. The fight was longer than I'd expected, but I did manage to inject my poison into her. As I was disappearing, I saw the necklace and saw the great magical properties it held. I took it without her even noticing and left her to stand there."

It took a few minutes for it all to sink in. Once it did, Naomi was growling. "You....You...." She could find no word that was suited to the emotion of deep and utter hatred that she felt. She recalled her mother's final words to her father....

"_It seems that I've broken the promise....The necklace you gave me....is gone...I'm sorry..."_

This only strengthened the hatred. Her eyes flashed angrily as she rose. "You...."

A great laugh came from Keitaru, though there was a subtle hint of worry. "You are stronger than I suspected," he said. "Perhaps you may prove to be a worthy opponent after all....."

"You....." Naomi growled. She trembled from head to toe in anger and hatred. No, not anger and hatred; these feelings were deeper than any of that. So much rage was inside that there was no possible way for her to let it out. This beast was so horrible that no words could describe how utterly terrible and brutal he was.

She launched herself at him, sword glowing black. Letting out a mighty cry, she pierced through his stomach with her sword. His eyes went wide.

This was unexpected! But no matter. He would simply heal himself. As she jumped back, he did just that.

Blackness mingled with the yellow color of her eyes. "You....." Red came into the mixture as well. "You....." She snarled and charged at him again.

This time he was expecting it and dodged. He laughed inside himself, for he knew something that she didn't; all that rage and anger was transforming her. She was being taken over by her demon side and by darkness itself. Once the transformation was complete, he'd be able to control her. He was the master of darkness, after all. It was only a matter of time.

"You......" She could feel it. The blood pulsing through her veins. Everything was becoming cloudy. The only thing she cared about now was killing that son of a bitch. She could feel herself transforming, but she didn't care. If it would give her more power to help her defeat him, then she was all for it. Her fangs were getting longer, as well as her claws. Her eyes were completely red now, save the black swirl. She growled fiercely and charged once more at him.

Yes! This was it! The perfect time! He dodged and started his spell. She was almost completely taken over by darkness, and soon control would be his.

Or so he thought.

"Naomi!"

She swiveled her head to look at the newcomers. They looked strangely familiar....But that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was him. She turned back to him and charged yet again. She was suddenly stopped, however, as she felt two forces tugging on her at once.

One was the force of darkness. The deep, ever binding, unending darkness that wished to consume her. It wished for her to become her slave, to be under its control, and to never return. It offered her the power to accomplish any of her wildest dreams.

The other was something completely different. It came from one of the newcomers. It was light, blinding light. It spread throughout and warmed her very soul. It offered kind, loving arms and a wonderful life that seemed almost too good to be real.

Keitaru watched with fury as she started un-transforming. He bared his teeth and chanted furiously under his hood. The side of darkness would win – it always won! And he, the Lord of Shadows, would have even more power.

As the dark side got stronger, so did the light side. It was a tug-of-war between the two sides, and Naomi was the rope. But through all this, Naomi only saw two things.

Keitaru, his form a leering speck of darkness in an even greater darkness.

And Hikaru, his form desperately pleading for her to come back.

All at once, she was back. And she was in control.

"Keitaru!" she called furiously. "I will not be your slave! I will never give my soul to darkness, no matter what! And I'm taking you down, even if I have to go as well!"

"Such bold words for such a pathetic half breed," Keitaru growled. His usual laughing undertone was absent, however. To tell the truth, trying to turn Naomi to the dark side had actually taken a lot of energy, and the fact that it didn't work made it even worse.

Hikaru and Inuyasha were about to step in and help, but Naomi stopped them with an outstretched hand. "This is something I must do on my own," she said calmly. "This monster killed my mother, and now I must avenge her on my own."

The two boys nodded in understanding. They didn't quite know, but they could guess how much this meant to her.

She closed her eyes in concentration. She was calm now, and there was little to no risk of her turning demon again, but she still needed to gather her energy for the fight.

Keitaru charged at her, hoping to kill her hurriedly and be done with it. He was stopped, however, as he hit an invisible barrier of Naomi's. Her eyes were still closed, but a yellowish glow could be plainly seen around her. After chanting a few words she opened her eyes and looked directly at Keitaru. "Die."

He was thrown back by a brilliant white light that blinded everyone except Naomi. Through the blinding light, she charged at Keitaru, sword pointed in his direction. She stuck it through him as she had before. This time, though, it was different. Before, black light born from hatred had colored her sword. This time, a golden glow surrounded the sword.

Keitaru still leered at her from the end of the sword. "You think that this will kill me?" he asked with a sneer. "Then you are sadly mistaken. Have you forgotten the necklace of immortality?"

"No," she answered simply. As she spoke, the necklace that Keitaru was still holding in his hand shattered, each pearl breaking into thousands of tiny pieces.

"How....can this be?" Keitaru asked, amazed. Naomi pulled the sword out, and he fell to his knees. "Impossible....." He fell forward onto the ground, his robes completely covering his still form. His barrier disappeared, and everyone was relieved to be back in the wonderful, bright......moonlight.

Inuyasha and Hikaru ran over. "What kind of demon was he?" Hikaru wondered aloud.

"One way to find out," Inuyasha replied. He pulled back the robes. Underneath was.....

A wisp of black smoke. It drifted up and disappeared with the wind. He wasn't Master of the Darkness, nor was he Ruler of the Shadows. He **was** darkness and shadows. Perhaps he once was some kind of demon, perhaps even a human, but he'd traded his soul for power and eventually it took him over. All along he was a puppet, just like Toshiro and Naomi were to him.

"You killed him, at least!" Hikaru exclaimed happily, turning to Naomi.

"Yeah....." She closed her eyes and collapsed, completely exhausted.

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3076 words! 8 pages! One of my longest chapters! HURRAY!!! (rejoices) Sorry if it seemed kinda cheesy at the end, though....Trust me, it gets cheesier. Well, I'd very much appreciate reviews! (unless everyone has given up on checking this story for updates....)


	20. The Aftermath

DISCLAIMER: How many times do I have to bloody say it?!?!?! I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA. Period. End of story. (literally, in this case...)

20. The Aftermath

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"Inuyasha! You're ok!" Kagome shouted as he immerged from the trees. "Is Naomi alright?"

Behind Inuyasha came Hikaru, who was carrying Naomi on his back.

"What happened?" Sango asked, rushing over to them along with the others.

"She's just had a long and tiresome fight," Hikaru said, smiling a little. "She'll probably be fine."

"That's good to hear," Kagome said, breathing a sigh of relief. Then she looked around cautiously. "What about that demon or whatever she was fighting....Where is he?"

"Gone," Inuyasha replied. "Forever. She'll never have to worry about him again."

At that moment, she stirred. Her eyes opened slowly and she looked around. "Where am I? What happened?" she asked, yawning. "Why am I on your back? Will someone explain all this to me? The last thing I remember was – Me....killing....Keitaru...."

"Then you remember right," Hikaru said cheerfully. "You collapsed, so I decided to carry you back."

"Oh....Well, I'm awake now, so you can put me down!"

Inuyasha whispered something in his ear quietly. Naomi, still just waking up, didn't hear what he said. Hikaru grinned and, well, put her down. By dropping her onto the hard ground.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, glaring at Inuyasha and Hikaru. "That wasn't funny."

"It's just payback for a few of the things you did to me," Inuyasha said, laughing. She just scowled before climbing to her feet and brushing herself off.

"Hey, could someone who's actually semi-intelligent explain to me something?" Naomi asked.

"That excludes you, Inuyasha," Miroku said calmly. This earned him a whack on the head. "Anyway, what is it, Naomi?"

"Well, back there, when I defeated Keitaru...." She explained to them about the light that had given her strength.

"I believe that was Hikaru's doing," Myouga said after she'd explained it all.

"What?" said everyone at once.

"You see," Myouga explained, "there's something about Hikaru that gives you strength, Naomi. You two share a special link to each other. When there was that barrier created by Toshiro, Hikaru went right through it and straight to you. He would've been able to do the same for Keitaru's barrier had it not been so strong."

"But what about the barrier thing?" Shippou asked. "I mean, you said that humans can't go in there without getting paralyzed."

"It seems that the bond they share is stronger than that magic."

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Naomi interrupted. "Lemme get this straight. You're saying that me and him,"she jerked her thumb towards Hikaru, "share some kind of bond? Like, what are we talking here, love or something sappy like that?"

"Not at all. Did you ever in your life feel as though you two were alike in some way?"

Naomi thought back to that day at the village. Right after she'd saved him from the demons and returned him and his friends to the village. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I guess so....I didn't realize it at the time, but we both only had one true best friend...."

"There you go. You were alike in that way, and apparently that was quite enough for the bond to become stronger."

"Um....By the way.....What happened to the flea bag?" Inuyasha asked, looking around.

"He ran off back to his den," Kagome said. "He was saying something about his wolves being hungry."

"Good. At least he's gone."

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Kagura was sitting against the rock, asleep. Her knees were drawn up and her head was laying on them. She was sound asleep, and didn't feel a thing as a ghost of a hand pushed back a strand of her hair that had fallen in her face. This ghost looked at her, wishing she could hear the words he had to say. Even if she couldn't hear him, though, he determined that it'd be better if he said them anyway.

"Good bye, Lady Kagura."

She stirred a little in her sleep, and the ghostly hand touched her face one last time before disappearing from the world forever, traveling to where his lovely Shina awaited him.

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"Do you really have to go?" Shippou asked.

"Yeah," Naomi said the next day. "Sorry kid, but I'm still an assassin, and I have places to go and things to do."

"We'll miss you," Kagome said. She cast a side-glance at Inuyasha. "**All** of us will miss you."

"Keh, whatever," Inuyasha said, arms crossed. "Just be sure to visit!"

"Why should I?" she teased. "What'd you ever do for me?"

"Just don't forget me again," Inuyasha demanded.

"Fine, fine, fine, whatever," she replied, smiling. "I'll be sure not to. Besides, do you really think I could forget you with that loud mouth you've got?"

"Keh!"

Naomi smiled at them. 'I'll miss you all too,' she thought. She'd never say the words aloud, of course. She started walking away, Hikaru by her side.

'I lied to her back there,' Myouga thought, sitting on Inuyasha's shoulder as they all watched her go. 'The bond that holds them together truly is love. But if I'd actually said that, she'd have squashed me, and I really didn't feel like being squashed again! I'll probably tell them one day. Maybe when they have a family together....'

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.......'Twas very cheesy, I know. (hides from cheesiness haters) Oh well. I can't help it. I'm a romantic and heart. As well as a comedian. I dunno which I am more, acomedian or a hopelessromantic. Oh well. Anyway, you had better be glad, cuz I had to type this thing with one arm cuz I broke the other! lol But I don't mind, really, because it wasn't that hard to type it. And I'm getting used to the cast now. And I know that it must've been TORTURE waiting for me to update. And I'm soooo incredibly sorry about that! And yes, I'm still grounded, but I've been sneaking on just for y'all. But it doesn't matter because this chapter is now up! REJOICENESS!! lol You're probably getting tired of me ranting and raving, so I'll just go ahead and tell you that I'm putting in a special bonus chapterfor ya'll that tells what all the names I used in this story mean. Now then....

**Review Please!**


	21. Bonus: Name meanings

These are the names of everyone I used in the story and they'er names' meanings. I have the actual cast, then I have my own little made-ups. I even tell why I chose the names I did!

Actual cast: (alphabetical order)(only the people I used in my story)

Inuyasha - Dog demon  
Jaken - Cruel  
Kaedae - Maple  
Kagome - A game children play that has to do with demons  
Kagura - A special dance  
Kanna - Mirror  
Kilala/Kirara - Mica (stone that's resistant to heat)  
Kouga - steel fang  
Miroku - The next Buddha  
Myouga - Divine protection  
Naraku - Hell (can also mean Theatre basement, lol!)  
Onigumo - Spider  
Rin - Companion  
Sango - Coral  
Sesshoumaru - Killing perfection  
Shippou - Seven treasures (Shippo, with no 'u', means Tail)

My characters: (also alphabetical)

Hikaru - Light (why this name? because he helps Naomi with his whole little powers of light and stuff)  
Keitaru - Blessed one (why this name? because he's been blessed with lots of power)  
Naomi - Great one/One above all (why this name? because she's pretty damn strong)  
Shina - Virtue (why this name? because she was virtuous)  
Toshiro - Intelligent (why this name? because he comes up with that plan)

If I missed anyone, go ahead and tell me and I'll add 'em.


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